A Very Wet New Year's Eve
by cherrishish
Summary: Maka has never been to the pool before because of complicated family issues and when the opportunity arises on New Year's Eve she just can't pass it up. Even if she is sick as a dog by the end of the experience. Of course it is up to Soul to take care of her afterwards, and in her fevered state she does and says some things she never intended to leave the confines of her mind.
1. Rough start to a long day

**A/N: I wanted to start this like weeks ago, but life happened... Oh well... New Year fic with my new favorites, Soul and Maka. Sickfic. Some cutesy caring stuff. Some SoMa later on. Rated M because well... let's just say there are multiple layers to meaning of the word 'wet'.**

* * *

The alarm clock went off with a loud and obnoxious _beep beep beep_. Soul grumpily slammed his hand on it to turn it off. _That's odd…_ – he thought. – _Maka usually wakes me before it has a chance to go off, since she insists that we would be late to school with the time I usually set it to._

Nevertheless Soul scrambled out of bed and began to get ready and dress, then wandered to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Going out to the kitchen he was surprised again. Maka was still nowhere to be found, no sign of the breakfast she usually prepared either. Maka always stressed that breakfast was the most important meal of the day, and always made a fuss about making sure Soul ate something in the morning too. Although he would have been content on just eating some snacks once at school, since his stomach usually woke up later than what his meister had set out for him. Muttering something incomprehensible along the lines of 'annoying, bossy meister' under his breath as he remembered these, he made for her door and knocked on it casually.

"Hey, Maka? You there?" – no answer came so he continued. – "Not that I care, but we are going to be late if you don't get up now." – to that some shuffling could be heard and a few seconds later a very disheveled ash-blond girl emerged from the room. Still in her pajamas.

"Just give me a minute and we can leave." – she said hastily, her voice still thick with sleep, then closed the door on herself once more, probably to get dressed. It didn't escape Soul's attention that Maka's eyes had bags underneath them, like she didn't get much sleep last night.

The albino demon weapon just shrugged his shoulders. Turning back to the kitchen he realized that there won't be any time for Maka to eat if she were to start cooking now, so he got a bowl, and poured some cereal and milk in it for her. _That should do it for today._

About five minutes later Maka emerged again. This time fully dressed and Soul was sure that now he was the only one who would able to tell just how tired she actually was. Her eyes wandered to the bowl waiting for her. To tell the truth she wasn't particularly hungry that morning, but she was not about to share that with Soul. There was no need to get him worried.

"Thanks." – she mumbled as she sat down to eat it quickly. Soul noted that her voice was still a bit off.

"You okay, Maka?" – he asked, genuinely concerned. Not that he would admit that. It would be totally uncool.

"Yes, why?" – his meister replied after a beat, trying to be nonchalant. Soul always thought that she was a terrible liar.

"Did you stay up too late to read again or what?" – Soul inquired with a smirk as he watched her spoon the last of the cereal in her mouth.

"Uhuh." – Maka hummed in agreement, her dark green eyes not meeting Soul's red orbs in the process.

"Whatever." – he knew that she was keeping something from him. – "Come on, we should still make it, if we take the bike to school." – normally they would just walk and keep the use of the motorcycle restricted to assignments and missions, but this seemed like a good enough reason to pull her out of the make-shift garage at the back of the complex anyway.

Maka seemed like she wanted to protest and claim that she was totally fine with running to school if they had to, but Soul grabbed her by the hand and dragged her to the entrance, fishing his apartment and motorcycle keys from the bowl by the door and was already nudging her out, barely letting her get her own keys.

Soul ran ahead letting Maka to close up while he got the bike up to the front of the apartment building. Maka sighed as she trotted down the stairs that led up to their flat. Even though she hadn't stayed up late like her weapon had insinuated she was uncharacteristically tired that morning and she knew that Soul knew too.

Within a minute or two the white-haired boy was wheeling the bike out, motioning for her to get on quickly. Maka swung her leg over the seat to position herself behind Soul and hugged him around the waist like she always did when they rode together, but this time she laid her head on his back too.

Soul didn't comment on it. He could feel Maka's soul wavelength fluctuate lazily like it usually did when she was tired or unfocused and just chalked up the change in habit to that. Not that he minded. They were partners and he would be there for her for anything she needed. Even if was being a pillow. In actuality he would have loved it if she were to lean on him like this more often, going beyond the usual support that the weapon-meister partnership would require, but he wasn't about to admit that. So he kept to being unusually protective of his meister when in battle and hoped that one day she would notice the reason behind it.

They reached the stairs leading up to the DWMA without uttering a single word between them. If it weren't for their perfectly attuned soul wavelengths the weapon might have been inclined to think that Maka had fallen back asleep on their way there, but he could tell that she was awake just didn't feel like filling the silence between them.

Getting off the motorcycle Maka really started to wish that she stayed home, but that would have ruined her perfect attendance record on the very last day, her only absences were due to mission related injuries. Give it to the DWMA to have classes even on December 31th. True only a half day but still… it was New Year's Eve for crying out loud.

Glancing up the seemingly endless stairs the meister sighed to herself and began her ascend. Soul watched attentively after her. Something was definitely off if even Maka was reluctant to the idea of school whatever day it was and that sigh couldn't have meant anything else.

He hurried to catch up with his meister after he locked the bike down. She kept her eyes on the top of the stairs, while Soul kept stealing glances at her. The ash-blond girl seemed unusually pale to him now that they were out in the mild winter sun of Nevada.

"What is it, Soul?" – Maka questioned with a hint of annoyance after the umpteenth time she caught him doing that.

"Nothing…" – he shrugged, dropping the subject. She was more irritable than usual and there was no point in getting in an argument. _Could she be PMS-ing?_ – Soul asked himself in thought. He didn't keep record of his meister's menstrual cycle like a certain young Shinigami did with his twin death weapons, thank you very much. That would be waaaay too gross and frankly intrusive in his opinion, but at times like these it would have helped immensely if he had at least an inkling of an idea what might be wrong so he could either steer clear of the danger zone or offer his support.

He was so lost in thought that he didn't even realize that they made it to the Crescent Moon classroom, and on time at that. They took their usual place in the middle row next to Tsubaki and Black*Star. The perceptive and versatile ninja weapon that she was, the black-haired girl spotted right away that something was off about Maka.

"Everything okay?" – she asked her as she placed a hand on her shoulder, glancing between Soul and Maka as if he had something to with the foul mood that his meister was in.

"Yeah, just tired." – Maka replied, putting her head on her desk in front of her. Truthfully, she started to feel like shit, but she wasn't about to admit that. Her throat was kind of scratchy that she hadn't noticed when she woke up, and she was definitely starting to get a headache.

 _'_ _PMS?'_ – Soul mouthed at Tsubaki, putting his hands up questioningly, trying to get her opinion, but she just shook her head like she was sure that was not the case with Maka. _Are girls that attuned to each other or was she keeping track of that damn thing for her friend too?_

Black*Star, who miraculously kept quiet till now and just stared between the three of them, decided now was the best time to draw attention to himself. Pretty loudly at that too.

"Why so glum? No need to be sad that it's the end of the year, because your king is here!" – he yelled obnoxiously, making Maka wince at the sudden noise.

"Shut up, Star, can't you see Maka isn't feeling well?" – Soul tried to defend his meister's interests, but ended up raising his voice to almost the same volume as his blue-haired bro.

"Oww… shut up, both of you." – Maka groaned, still face flat on the desk but she brought up her hands to cover her head.

"Sorry." – Soul offered, in a much quieter tone, but Black*Star just kept going.

"Are you guys coming to Kid's pool party for the evening?" – he inquired still a bit too loud, but at least he wasn't screaming anymore.

It was this moment that Maka remembered the reaper's invitation the day before. In all truth she was looking forward to it. It's not like they had to worry about the weather in this climate but as far as she knew the pool was indoors at Gallows Manor, with slides and everything. It sounded like fun.

"I don't know…" – Soul began as he glanced at Maka to assess the state she was in before answering, but he got interrupted.

"Of course we are going!" – the ash-blond girl perked up, and instead of lying flat on the desk decided to perch her head on her hands with a smile to at least give the semblance of being well enough.

Truthfully she was beginning to think that she might be coming down with a cold, but she was not about to pass up this opportunity. With the way her childhood was – having a meister for a mother and a death scythe for a father – she didn't really ever have the chance to go to the pool or beach with them while young, then their nasty split and subsequent divorce happened, plus her life as a DWMA E.A.T. student didn't help in this regard either.

"I guess we are going then." – Soul affirmed nonchalantly, but kept eyeing Maka for signs if she was really well enough to go but he really wasn't sure with the charade that she was now putting up.

Just then Professor Stein wheeled himself in on his customary stitched up green office chair.

"Okay class, given that your brains are probably already focused on whatever party you are going to tonight…" – he began looking up at the students from behind his glasses. – "Instead of some serious learning how 'bout we go down to the training grounds and practice some soul resonance during this double lesson that we have?" – Stein asked while turning the screw in his head up a few notch.

Everyone seemed relieved by the idea, since they were way past learning doing this. Noticing the sudden elation, the professor smirked evilly as his glasses shined with the light it reflected.

"Group resonance, that is." – Dr. Stein added and a little disappointed whine escaped from almost everyone in the class, since they were hoping they would get off easy with just doing it with their partners.

"Where is Kid by the way?" – Soul wondered as they went outside to the forest area after he had noticed that the young reaper – and by default Liz and Patti too – were nowhere to be found.

"Probably skipping to make sure everything is symmetrical for the party!" – Black*Star laughed loudly at his own joke, which wasn't all that funny. And in all truth it was probably _exactly_ what Kid was doing…

"So it's just the two of us now, huh?" – Maka commented as she held out her hand signaling for Soul to transform to his weapon form after they have reached the grounds, Tsubaki doing the same for Black*Star, taking up her default kusarigama form. Maka wished Kid was here, he acted as a very good intermediary between her and Black*Star for the group resonance to even out their soul wavelengths a bit, but maybe this was a good opportunity to practice, she guessed.

It was always the meister's job to make the link with the other teams in the group resonance, with the weapons usually concentrating on maintaining the pair's resonance in the meanwhile. Resonating with Soul was like second nature to Maka, she could practically do it in her sleep and it came to her easily now too, her throat or head not distracting her one bit.

Black*Star was a whole different story. Even on a good day they had trouble synchronizing, even with Kid's help, but they could manage to keep it up for a few seconds-minutes depending on their concentration. So it wasn't really a surprise that now the minute she tried to interlink their wavelengths the resonance broke off immediately, sending them off from each other, landing Maka on her butt, while Black*Star just did a backflip and ended up on his feet like a good ninja should.

"You okay, Maka?" – Soul asked quietly from his soul space so only Maka could hear.

"Yes, I'm fine." – the meister panted as she got back up.

"Come on, Maka! You can do better than this! Don't bring the star of school down with you!" – the obnoxious assassin shouted as he trotted back to them.

"Be nice, Black*Star, you Maka isn't feeling well." – Tsubaki admonished him from her weapon form.

"You know that's no excuse!" – he yelled.

Maka just gritted her teeth and got back into stance trying to focus even harder.

"Relax, Maka, don't give yourself an aneurysm. This is just a dumb practice lesson." – Soul commented coolly. The meister just a took a deep breath to calm herself and began their pair resonance, the red-eyed weapon joining in as soon as he felt the little nudge from his partner's soul.

They took a little bit more time to make sure their connection was solid before Maka reached out to Black*Star, him doing the same. The same clash of wavelengths happened for a few more tries then all of a sudden after a few seconds that it seemed that their wavelengths will cancel each other out again, by some miracle the resonance connected and their individual soul bubbles merged into one bigger. Soul could feel that it's really taking a toll on Maka to keep it up. Nevertheless she gave it everything she got and they managed to maintain the connection for a whole minute before the blonde had to let go and collapsed on all fours, trying to catch her breath.

Soul and Tsubaki both transformed back to human form without prompting and rushed up to their friend to see if she was okay, with Black*Star following not too far behind.

"Maka!" – her weapon cried out with worry, all pretenses of cool uninterest gone.

"I'm alright just give me a minute." – she managed to say, but in actuality all she wanted to do was go lay down. Stein noticed that they stopped practicing and strolled over to check on them.

"What's the matter kids?" – he asked causally but it was clear to him with his soul perception that Maka had worn herself out in the effort.

"Nothing, we will continue in a second Dr. Stein." – Maka insisted before anyone could say otherwise.

"No I think this was enough for today. You guys are still the only group who can resonate in the class, so I think you earned it. Go home with Soul and rest. There is only a half an hour left of this lesson anyway and I will let Sid know that you guys will be absent from his class." – he said and left them be without another word.

"Cool! Teacher approved skipping!" – Black*Star shouted enthusiastically.

"That didn't apply to you." – Stein commented as he popped a cigarette into his mouth turning back to them.

"Ahhh… maaaan!" – the blue-haired meister punched the air in disappointment and stomped further away in the field.

"Come one, Maka, I'm taking you home." – Soul helped his partner up. _Man, she must be really beat if she didn't even try to protest Stein sending her home in the middle of the school day._

"Bye, Maka, I hope you will feel better soon!" – Tsubaki waved after them and Maka gave her a half-hearted wave back.

After they reached the motorcycle and Soul unlocked it, he couldn't keep the question in anymore.

"What's going on, Maka?" – he inquired as he turned his back to look at the girl as she sat on the bike behind him.

"Really, I'm just tired, Soul. Let's go home." – she insisted as she leaned into him the same way she did only a couple of hours ago on the way there.

"If you say so." – Soul huffed, but kicked the engine to life anyway and drove straight to their apartment.

After getting to their building Maka took no haste in claiming that she was in need of a nap and locked herself in her room, leaving Soul clueless in the living room. If they wanted to eat some kind of lunch anytime soon he would have to start cooking now.

The problem was that Soul was a hopeless cook. The most complex meals he could whip up were scrambled eggs and toast sandwiches. Anything else he tried he tended to burn or it, or make a mess that Maka had to clean up afterwards. _Oh, well…_ – he thought. – _We can always order take out. It's not like we do it often so we can afford it this one time._

The white-haired weapon stood in the kitchen for a minute contemplating what he should order for the both of them. Thai sounded good from their favorite joint not far from their home. So he quickly called them up ordering their usual and felt very pleased with himself to have averted the lunch crisis.

While he waited for the food to come he popped a movie in the player to watch, but it just wasn't right. They usually watched movies together with Maka, relaxing together on the couch after a long and hard day of training or missions. Soul really missed the sensation of Maka snuggling up to him in this instance.

He sighed and turned the movie off and instead got his guitar from his room and played some tunes. Most people found the music he played and wrote dark and twisted but for some odd reason or another Maka didn't mind at all. Actually when they first met Soul purposefully avoided the crowd at the introduction ball, designed to have weapons and meisters mingle and find the right match for themselves, and retreated to that dark corner with the piano to play his creepy tunes to ward off everyone. Instead that was exactly what Maka found intriguing in him. It was like she could see right through him. Given that she has soul perception it was probably exactly what she did, even is she was not that in control or aware of that ability. But even with that she didn't mind his music at all, and offered to be his meister.

 _Good times…_ – Soul mused at the memory. Then the doorbell rang signaling that the food was here. He quickly paid the delivery boy and set the boxes on the kitchen counter.

"Who was that Soul?" – Maka's sleepy voice came from the corner. It seemed the ring of the doorbell woke her up. _Crap._

"Just lunch, I ordered some thai." – the albino boy replied. Maka shuffled into the kitchen looking at the boxes with an unreadable expression.

"I'm not that hungry." – she announced after a few beats.

"But this is your favorite!" – Soul was absolutely lost. Maka had never passed up chicken pad thai before.

Seeing her weapon's thoroughly lost expression at the situation, Maka grabbed her box and chop sticks, and sat down at the kitchen table to try and eat some of it anyway.

Soul took his food too and sat down beside her.

"So do you still want to go to that pool party?" – he asked cautiously.

"Of course I do." – his meister replied flatly, like she was just stating the obvious.

"Wanna watch a movie or something?" – the red-eyed boy inquired after he finished. Maka was still picking at her food but it was obvious she wasn't going to finish it.

"Sure." – she answered curtly with a small smile and placed the leftovers in the fridge.

They made themselves comfortable in the small living room, the ash-blonde resting her head on Soul's shoulder. After like twenty minutes she dozed off, sleeping comfortably on her partner. Soul just rolled his eyes and chuckled to himself at the sight.


	2. Pool shenanigans

"Come on, sleepyhead. You gotta get up now if we want to make it to the party." – Soul nudged his partner lightly who was still sleeping on his shoulder, snoring lightly and drooling on him a bit because she was breathing mainly through her mouth. The movie he had put in has long ended but he didn't have the heart to disturb Maka to put in another so he had just flicked to a random channel, which was still running in the background. It seemed she really needed her sleep.

Maka was never one to drool, it has always been the albino weapon. His meister always told him it was because he was still growing into his large set of pointy teeth. As if right on cue he slurped the little drool he had at the corner of his mouth as well. The sound of it brought Maka back to the land of the conscious.

"What time is it?" – she asked with a yawn and rubbed at her face, wiping the drool away from it in the process. When the wetness of it touched her hand she looked at it with a weird zoned out expression. – "Did you drool on me again?" – Maka complained, but her voice contained no anger or resentment for it. Soul laughed out at the accusation.

"No, dummy, you did that all on your own this time. It's ten past five by the way." – the red-eyed boy replied as he glance at the clock above their heads.

"I slept through the afternoon? We are going to be late!" – the ash-blond meister shot up to a full sitting position then proceeded to get up but swayed a little, having to catch herself on the armrest of the sofa. _Damn, head-rush!_

"Woah, Maka, are you alright?" – Soul exclaimed worried as he moved to catch her if needed.

"Yeah, just got up too quickly." – she shook it off with a smile and walked to her room.

The weapon partner groaned in frustration at his meister. _Why does she insist on keeping him out?_ Something was clearly off that day. He couldn't dwell on it long though because seconds later he heard Maka's voice from her room.

"Soul!" – she called out and her partner panicked a bit, rushing to see what was wrong.

"Maka!" – he exclaimed as he burst through the door, clearly expecting her to be collapsed on the floor or something. Instead Soul found his meister in the middle of the room holding up two sets of bikinis in her hand, pouting as she kept glancing between them.

"I don't know which one to wear!" – Maka whined desperately, looking up at Soul for advice.

"Heh?" – the white-haired boy visibly deflated as the adrenalin rushed out of his system. He was relieved that nothing was wrong per se but God did she scare him for a minute there.

"Which one, Soul? Come on, help me out here, I have never been to the pool before." – she looked up at him with big green pleading eyes.

It was only now that the teenager looked at the choices at all. One was a green bikini with a ruffled tube top and cute small bottoms, the other was pink and looked like a few triangles that had been sewn together.

"Green one. It brings your eyes out and hides the fact that you are as flat as board." – Soul pointed at his chosen one after a few seconds. Maka's face contorted at that comment and she reached for the book on her night stand.

"Maka-Chop!" – she yelled and smacked her partner in the head right in the middle, causing him to collapse on the floor right there in the doorway. – "Anyway get out and get ready. We are supposed to be there at six." – the ash-blond girl added after she calmed down.

"Yeah, okay." – Soul rubbed his head where he had been hit and staggered to his own room. After he left, Maka looked at the two bikinis again as if they were to blame for the whole situation, but ended up choosing the green one that Soul suggested anyway.

Ten minutes later both of them were at the door ready to leave. Swimwear on under their street clothes, a small bag packed with towels and flip flops, shampoo and shower gel and other stuff for afterwards.

Maka put jeans and a sweater on instead of her usual miniskirt, black coat combo, much to Soul's relief. New Year's Eve was pretty warm with its 60 degrees but the desert air always carried a chill to it in the night.

"Wanna walk or should we get the bike out?" – Soul inquired as he glanced down at his partner at the bottom of the stairs.

"Nah, I'm fine. Besides I thought you guys wanted to drink." – Maka looked up into his eyes.

"I have no idea what you are talking about…" – the boy averted his eyes as he scratched the side of his head.

"You can't fool me. I know exactly when you and Black*Star sneak in a few beers even though you can't legally drink yet." – the meister teased with a chuckle and started walking in the direction of the manor. She wasn't judging, she just wasn't into it herself.

"How can you tell?" – the albino stared after her wide-eyed for being found out then ran to catch up.

"For one your breath reeks of alcohol afterwards, second, I've got Soul Perception remember? I can sense when you are up to something you know you aren't supposed to do. But for today we can make an exception I guess." – Maka winked at him conspiratorially. Soul was absolutely shocked. His meister who was usually dead set on following the rules just gave the okay to underage drinking in her presence.

"Who are you and what have you done with Maka?" – he asked with a forced straight face, reaching for her forehead to see if she had a fever.

"Oh, shut it!" – she swatted his hand away but had to turn away from him and cover her face as she sneezed. – "Don't even go there! I'm fine." – the ash-blond girl added when she saw Soul's surprised and worried expression.

* * *

They managed to arrive last to Gallows Mansion, the butler let them in and directed them towards the pool area where the party was already in full-swing. Black*Star, Tsubaki and the Thompson sisters were already in the pool, waving at them enthusiastically when they entered.

Kid even had a DJ stand set up at one end of the pool and he was manning it! Of course everything was exactly symmetrical, the sunbeds by the pool side, the food and drinks table at the other end of the room, even the DJ stand, with the death mask symbol on the front of it.

"Welcome guys! The bathrooms are to the left where you can change." – the shinigami boy hollered into his mic pointing in the right direction. – "Just please don't mess up the towels I set out, they are perfectly aligned right now."

Maka and Soul sighed, this was exactly what they were expecting. They didn't know why Kid decided to host this party in the first place. Parties came with mess, especially if there were alcoholic beverages served, and mess ultimately meant the loss of order and symmetry. They predicted that Kid will be a nervous wreck by the end of the night.

They went their separate ways to undress quickly and were back by the pool in a few minutes. Maka threw a mischievous grin at Soul and made a run for the pool, jumping right in, splashing everyone in it in the process.

After reemerging Maka treaded in the water that reached to her chest toward Tsubaki.

"Are you feeling better?" – the shadow weapon asked with a kind smile as she gently patted the meister on her head. She was wearing a black bikini with intricate straps that crisscrossed below her breasts and on her stomach.

"What, is everything okay? Why didn't anyone tell us you were not feeling well?" – Liz whipped her head towards them, obviously out of the loop since they weren't in class that morning.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I was just tired. I had a good nap with Soul on the couch." – Maka replied waving off her concern.

"With Soul on the couch? Wooo… Naughty girl!" – Patti chimed in as she picked the smaller girl up and spun her around in the water.

"Nothing like that!" – the ash-blonde cried out in surprise and blushed furiously once she was set back down in the water. – "I fell asleep on his shoulder while watching a movie!"

"Even better!" – the blond weapon exclaimed excitedly ducking under the water when Maka tried to swat her with a splash.

"Are you even listening to what I am saying?" – Maka sulked submerging her face halfway in the water.

Soul shook his head at the girls' antics from the side of the pool. He sat down on the ledge, only his legs in the water so far. _At least the water is pretty warm._ – he thought while kicking his feet under it. He noticed that Black*Star had suspiciously disappeared. A second later he found out exactly why.

"Prepare for your death, Soul!" – the assassin yelled as he charged for him from behind trying to push him into the pool, but since he was unable to keep quiet Soul just scooted a bit over and the blue-haired meister whooshed past him, falling into the water.

"Black*Star you really need to learn what being quiet means!" – Tsubaki admonished playfully, laughing lightly along with everyone else.

"Nah, that idiot is fine just like this." – Soul joked as he eased himself into the pool carefully to not wet his hair, which was held back by his thin black hairband.

To his misfortune Black*Star wasn't done yet. He swam up to Soul underwater and dragged him under so suddenly he didn't even have time to take a breath.

"So not cool, bro!" – Soul burst out after reemerging and trying to force air into his lungs again. The ninja just laughed obnoxiously, pointing at him and his hair that was flattened out on his head because of the water. They went into a full out brawl as they tried to drag the other one under.

"Hey guys, knock it off you are going to get the DJ set and _me_ wet!" – Death the Kid sharply rebuked them.

"It's a pool party of course everything is going to get wet!" – Black*Star yelled back at him.

"Just put on a playlist and come get in with us!" – Soul suggested with a shrug.

"Yeah, Kid! Come get in!" – Patti seconded enthusiastically, swimming over to that side of the pool in her giraffe themed one piece swimsuit.

"But I hate being wet!" – the shinigami shuddered at just the thought of it.

"Then why throw a _pool_ party?" – the two other boys asked incredulously at the same time.

"Because, the beautiful ladies had pointed out that it would be an activity that everyone else would enjoy." – the yellow-eyed death god admitted embarrassedly.

"And you just can't say no to them, can you?" – Soul teased further but was met with a book to his head.

"Stop being rude to our host, Soul!" – Maka admonished her weapon from the side of the pool where she was crouching to reach the white-haired boy.

"Where the hell did you get a book in here?" – Soul cried out, startled by the sudden attack.

"It was in my bag." – she replied nonchalantly as she stood back up to put away said product of the printing industry. Kid of course did not set foot in the pool after this confrontation either.

* * *

"Hey guys, let's play a game of water volleyball!" – Liz proposed the idea after a few hours of general goofiness and drinking that ensued between the friends, and was already getting out of the water to get the supplies for it.

"But there is seven of us, the teams won't be symmetrical!" – Kid started freaking out.

"You said you are not getting in the water anyway right? You can be the judge and the six of us will play." – the older twin pistol waved him off as she came back with the net and ball.

"Actually I'm really bad with ballgames so I think Kid should play and I will be the referee." – Maka suggested since she was starting to feel tired again anyway.

"But then how are you going to divide the teams? There would be three girls and three boys. That would never be symmetrical! Plus probably everyone wants to be in one team with their partners! This is impossible!" – the shinigami continued with his spiraling thoughts. Liz looked at Maka pleadingly to just play and go along with what she had set out in the beginning. She nodded with a sigh as she relented.

"Patti and me don't mind being on opposite teams, so you just referee, okay Kid? Two girls and one guy in each team. Here take this end to the other side." – Liz handed the net to her meister.

"Oh, okay." – he calmed down instantly, busy with the new task of making sure the net was put on perfectly symmetrically. Although Liz bending down just across from him in the tiny triangle bikini top was distracting a bit, so he had to redo the fastening to be satisfied with it.

Once everything was set up, the two teams were ready to play. Soul, Maka and Liz in one and Black*Star, Tsubaki and Patti in the other to have somewhat of a balance in height between the teams too.

But nothing could balance out Maka's absolute lack of sense for ballgames so unfortunately they lost. With a big gap at that. Consecutively. Completely exhausted the ash-blond meister got out of the pool and lied down on her towel on one of the sunbeds to catch her breath and dry off a bit, ignoring Soul's gaze on her.

After a few minutes she decided to read so she fished out the book that she had brought with her – the very same that she used not too long ago to smack Soul in the head with. But that idea turned out to be not so great either because the general noisiness of her friends and the music – which she was usually able to block out for the sake of a good read – penetrated her ears with a stubborn intensity that she couldn't ignore and made her head hurt. Maka tried to push through it anyway but she had to admit that not much of the book's contents had reached her foggy mind right now.

"You know this is a party right?" – Soul appeared on Maka's right side seemingly from nowhere, teasing her for secluding herself for a sake of a story when she could be having fun with them. She jerked the book to the left to keep him from dripping on it.

"I'm aware." – she replied irritatedly. It was herself she was irritated with mostly, she had been looking forward to coming but wasn't able to enjoy it because she was getting sick.

"Come, the countdown is almost starting. Kid has some champagne we can toast with." – the white-haired boy held a hand out his partner to help her up with a toothy smile. – "Don't worry there is non-alcoholic, too." – he added with a wink. The ash-blond meister looked up on the clock and sure enough midnight was only minutes away. They walked over to the food table, everytone grabbing a plastic cup as they counted down the seconds to midnight.

"Cheers, Happy New Year!" – they all toasted then talked a bit as they sipped their champagne. Maka suddenly shivered violently and went to get her towel to wrap around her shoulders.

Everyone – except Maka and Kid – got back into the pool, playing around, splashing each other. Black*Star managed to grab Tsubaki and throw her into the air just to have her land in the water with a big splash, making her yelp in surprise. In turn Soul snuck up on his blue-haired friend and dragged him underwater a second later too. Maka sat down at the edge, her legs in the water from knee down, the towel still around her, and just watched her friends absentmindedly, while Kid turned the tempo of the music up again.

"Everything alright, Maka? You are looking a little pale." – the shinigami boy came and crouched beside her after a few minutes.

"Mhm." – was the response the girl could manage which didn't lessen Kid's worries one bit. Liz already told him what happened at school when he looked at her questioningly after Maka withdrew from them after the volleyball game.

Another shiver ran up the blonde's spine and it didn't get past the shinigami's attention either.

"Do you want me to get Soul?" – he asked with worry. It was clear that his friend wasn't well at all but it seemed that she was hell bent on concealing this fact.

"No." – Maka replied firmly with no hesitation. _Okay, let's approach this differently._ – Kid thought.

"You know if you are tired you could just take a hot shower, change to regular clothes and lie down in one of the rooms upstairs. I doubt this party will be over for another four hour at least so no need to tough it out." – the golden eyed boy commented as he glanced at the boys who were still at it with the energy level of hyped up five year olds. The girls were a bit more subdued but they were chatting animatedly at the other corner of the pool too, away from the big splash action.

A warm bed actually sounded really inviting to Maka so she nodded in agreement to Lord Death's son with a small smile and went to get her bag to take with her to the bathroom. After getting the chlorine off of herself with the nice hot cascading water and drying her hair, the blond meister exited through the other side to the hall of the mansion. The butler was waiting for her to show her which room she could use. Kid must have given him instructions while she was showering.

Kicking her shoes back off, Maka climbed in under the covers and was claimed by sleep instantly.

* * *

"Where is Maka?" – Soul noticed the absence of his partner around 1 AM. Until then he assumed she was just lounging on one of the sunbeds, but when they had gotten out of the pool to play cards at one of the tables he saw that she wasn't there. At first he thought maybe she just went to the ladies room or something, but now twenty minutes later his meister was still nowhere to be seen so he had voiced his worry.

"She went to lie down upstairs. I don't think she was feeling well." – Death the Kid informed him as he looked up from his hand, deliberating whether to fold or not.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" – the albino weapon got up so quickly he almost knocked over the table, sending the shinigami into a frenzy to adjust it back exactly in the place it was before to maintain the symmetry of the room.

"Don't go dripping on the carpets! Change before you go upstairs!" – Kid called after him as he saw Soul leave. Fortunately he ducked back in to get his bag and towel. _Random water spots everywhere on the carpets were everything but symmetrical!_

Taking two steps at a time on the stairs, the scythe demon weapon rushed to find his meister. Luckily he bumped into the butler who directed him in the right direction.

Opening the room quietly Soul spotted Maka sleeping soundly. He walked up to the bed and sat down beside her. His partner looked worse than in the afternoon. She was really pale but her cheeks were flushed with red, like she was blushing but much less healthily.

"You are a big idiot, aren't you?" – he whispered quietly as he brushed a few strands of hair out of his meister's face and felt that she was burning up. – "Why didn't you tell me you were getting sick?"


	3. No denying it now

At 4 AM Black*Star was still in full swing with energy, dragging whoever he still could into his flurry of action. Liz was already passed out on a sunbed with a beer bottle still in her hand. Patti was giggling away on a giant giraffe swimming ring, currently letting the blue-haired meister to drag her back and forth in the pool. Kid's eyes were starting to droop as he stared at the DJ set, trying to decide what he should put on next. Tsubaki was exhausted too but held her front with a gentle smile as she sat at the edge of the pool watching her partner's antics.

"YAHOOO!" – said obnoxious assassin hollered out of the blue, making Liz jump at the sudden increase in noise and the beer bottle slipped out of her hand, shattering on the tiles. The young shinigami was snapped back into alertness at once.

"I'm sorry, Kid! I will clean up in a sec!" – Liz frantically stated and was already getting up from where she was sprawled out.

"No, don't! I will get it, you will just cut your feet on the glass shards." – Kid ran off to get a broom, garbage shovel and mop presumably.

"I think we should call it a night before anything else happens." – the older twin pistol groaned as she leaned back down after looking at the time.

"No way!" – Black*Star burst out, displeased with the way this was going at the moment. Of course he had not had enough tact to realize he was the reason, nor to apologize.

"Okie dokie." – Patti agreed though and went for the ladder to get out of the pool.

"Geez, idiot, wait for Kid to come back and clean up!" – Liz called out to her sister when she saw what she was trying to do.

"Oooh, sorry, sis!" – the infantile demon weapon let go of the ladder railing to fall back into the pool. The older Thompson sister rolled her eyes as she let her head fall back onto her towel.

"Did Soul never come back?" – Black*Star asked as he looked around room.

"Did you just now realize?" – Kid replied sarcastically as he came back in and began to clean the mess up.

"I apologize for Black*Star." – Tsubaki bowed at Kid from the other end of the pool.

"No need, not your fault." – Kid sighed as he began sweeping.

"Soul has been alone in a lockable room with Maka for the past 3 hours? How dare he keep his god out of the loop on his conquests?!" – the blue-haired assassin looked shocked and jumped out of the pool, only to slip on the wet, slippery side and fall right back in.

"You do realize they live together, right? Whatever idea your gutter of a mind has come up with just now, they are perfectly capable of doing in the comfort of their own home." – Kid muttered to himself as he furiously tried to gather all the green shards the beer bottle shattered into.

"Still, we have to go see!" – the ninja insisted as he reemerged with one hand extended above his head, pointing at the ceiling. – "Unless, of course, you are completely fine with them getting it on between your bed linens, Kid, and you not even knowing about it!"

* * *

Five curious heads poked in through the crack of the door to see what the scythe weapon and meister were doing in the guest room alone. In the end none of them could resist the temptation of snooping on their friends. To some extent every one of them rooted for this duo to finally realize their feelings for each other and act on it. Though they were absolutely not prepared for the sight that greeted them.

Maka was bundled up like a burrito in blankets, only her head sticking out, with a small wet washcloth on her forehead, while Soul was sleeping above the covers on his side, facing Maka with one arm draped around her torso protectively. They backed away slowly and closed the door behind themselves.

* * *

Maka woke up feeling entirely too warm and with a pounding headache. And she had to pee. Really bad. Glancing around, she saw that Soul was sleeping beside her peacefully, drooling lightly on the blankets that covered her. The meister smiled a bit, but even this little movement caused her throat to flare up like it was literally on fire. She cringed at the feeling. This was not good. Even worse she could barely breathe through her nose because it was so clogged up. It was a no win situation either way. All she really wanted to do was to fall back asleep, but nature's call was way too insistent to ignore so she sat up.

As she did this she realized two things. First, there was a small towel on her forehead that fell off with the movements she made. Second, Soul's arm was wrapped around her. She was deeply touched by the gestures her weapon made to make her feel better. Maka gently untangled herself then shuffled out of bed and staggered towards the bathroom.

She shivered against the coolness of the black, white and red tiles that decorated the en suite as she sat down to relieve herself. The meister knew that she had a fever. Probably pretty high too based on how crap she was feeling. She sighed heavily as she leaned into her hands that only irritated her throat further and sent her into a small coughing fit.

"Maka?" – came Soul's sleepy yet awfully worried - not that he would ever admit to that - voice and a small knock on the door. – "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be out in a minute." – Maka rasped as a reply after the fit subsided.

After finishing up she stood in front of the mirror a bit as she washed her hands. _I look awful._ – she observed her pale complexion and bags under her dull eyes. As she exited the room she saw that Soul was waiting for her leaning against the wall by the door with his arms crossed.

They looked each other in the eye stubbornly, saying nothing, until Maka shivered again, then turned her head away sneezing three times in fast succession into her elbow. What she wouldn't have given for a tissue just about now.

"Come, get back under the covers." – he said grabbing her hand and guiding her back to the bed.

"Actually, I'd like to go home." – the ash-blond girl muttered as she sat down on the bed. She dug through her bag and found some paper tissues, blowing her nose noisily into one. Not that it helped much, her sinuses closed right back up.

"Sure. Let me just get our stuff. Lie back down until then." – the albino boy responded coolly and turned to go back down to the pool where some of their belongings still were, but was stopped by a cold hand grabbing his.

"No, I'll come with you. I would just fall back asleep if I lied down." – Maka stated as she pulled herself back up to standing position, never letting go of Soul's hand. He grabbed her bag from beside the bed and they walked out the door.

As they went downstairs the meister let herself be dragged along sort of, almost closing her eyes and trusting her partner to lead her wherever they needed to be. Somewhere along the way she caught a glance at a clock and saw that it was only 7 AM.

Reaching the pool they saw that the party had long ended, no one was in sight. Soul had started for the bathroom to get his bag and stuff that he left in there in a hurry earlier, but found that they were neatly folded on one of the sunbeds. He then had to pack away with one hand because his partner stubbornly wouldn't let go of him still. _Who knew Maka was the clingy type when ill?_ During their now more than two-year partnership he had never actually witnessed her being sick before.

The white-haired boy could see that she was barely hanging onto consciousness so he did his best to hurry then swung that bag over his shoulder too and made their way toward the front door. In the lobby they ran into Kid.

"Oh, hey, you guys are still up?" – Soul asked with surprise when he saw him.

"No, just me. I couldn't sleep until everything was put back in order." – he answered while stifling a yawn.

"We gonna head out. Thanks for the party. It was really cool." – the scythe weapon waved a lazy goodbye to their host.

"Yes, thank you. Sorry I was such a downer." – Maka smiled, tiredly leaning onto Soul.

"You weren't. Feel better soon!" – the shinigami took in the girl's appearance. It was clear that she was sick, her skin clammy and flushed. Then his gaze wandered to their joined hands, which almost made him raise an eyebrow but he didn't comment on it.

As they stepped outside a cool breeze hit them and Maka shuddered at it. Soul took off his hoodie and handed it to her with one hand while shoving the other in his pocket.

"Take it." – he curtly suggested, his eyes intensely on her.

"Thanks." – the blonde muttered quietly as she shrugged it on, welcoming the warmth that she could feel lingering in it from Soul's skin. But despite that she was still cold.

"I really wish we had come with Luci." – Soul sighed, deep in thought as they walked the cobblestoned street away from the manor.

"With who?" – Maka looked at him questioningly.

"The bike. We could be home faster." – he blinked at her wide-eyed. Now that he thought about he had never told her that he named it.

"You named your motorcycle Luci? Why didn't you tell me?" – she cried out agitatedly but regretted it as soon as it made her throat hurt and cough heavily.

"Well, it's Lucille actually, but yes." – the red-eyed boy scratched the back of his head embarrassedly. – "I thought you were going to laugh at me for it."

"No, I wouldn't." – the ash-blond girl leaned into her partner for support with a small smile. – "Since when are you into French names anyway?"

"Dunno, just came to me one day." – he shrugged.

They walked in silence after that. Around halfway Soul just decided to carry Maka piggy-back style because she was walking so slowly and unsteadily that it was more efficient this way. It was kind of awkward with both backpacks at his front, but the fact that she didn't protest made it all the more compelling for the weapon partner to get her home as fast as possible.

The white-haired scythe set his meister down as they reached the door so that he could fish his keys out and open it. He reached to pick her back up again but she shook her head indicating that she can stand and walk in on her own.

Once inside the cozy apartment Maka went straight for her room and changed into some comfy flannel pajamas and clambered into bed under the covers for warmth.

Soul stood for a moment in the living room, trying to decide what he should do. First of all he had to take care of the laundry. He hanged all the damp towels and swimwear out. He knew it should be washed too but the myriad of knobs and buttons on the washing machine were too intimidating to figure out and usually Maka handled this stuff. _She would kill me if I accidentally ruined her bikini…_ – Soul shuddered at the thought.

 _Okay, kitchen, medicine cabinet…_ – he continued his quest to tend to things, Maka among others too. He placed the things he deemed necessary on a tray – thermometer: check, fever reducers: check, cough syrup: check, orange juice: check, small towel and cold water bowl: check.

The demon weapon knocked on his partner's room, but no answer came so he quietly opened the door. Maka seemed to be asleep again so Soul set the tray down on her bedside table and turned to leave once more but the girl was able to grab his wrist halting him in his tracks.

"Stay." – was all that she could manage. The meister was hot and cold at the same time. Her head throbbed uncomfortably with the pressure in her sinuses, she couldn't breathe properly through her nose but her throat flared with every breath she took through her mouth. All in all, she felt horribly miserable and the last thing she wanted was to be alone.

Soul took pity on her and sat down on the edge of her bed, half turned towards her, his right hand still trapped by his partner's too warm one.

"Be honest with me, what hurts?" – he began, his trust a bit shaken by yesterday's pretenses. Surely she had known that something was wrong all along, but kept telling them that she was just 'tired'.

"Everything." – Maka replied with a little whine and curled on her side around her weapon's hand. Soul placed his other on her forehead.

"You are still feverish." – the red-eyed boy frowned and reached for the thermometer, offering it to his little patient, which she took in her mouth without a word.

"102.6" – Soul stated unhappily after the allotted amount of time passed and he checked the reading.

"Soul…" – Maka began quietly, completely ignoring her partner's tone as he set the thermometer back down on the tray, her mind entirely elsewhere. – "Do you ever regret that I walked up to you at the piano that day?" – she asked contemplatively, her eyes trained on their joined hands.

"What the…?" – the weapon partner was taken aback. _Where was this coming from?_ After a short pause he continued. – "Never, ever think that." – he stated bluntly.

"I'm sorry." – she whispered, still not meeting his eyes, burrowing her head deeper into the pillow, a tear escaping her eyes. – "I… I just…" – her fevered mind was running wild with thoughts of inadequacy, guilt for being difficult and short-tempered at a lot of times, for smacking Soul on the head with thick books way harder than necessary. In her state she couldn't imagine why Soul was putting up with her bossy attitude and violence, her distrust in men in general. Deep inside she knew he wanted more, that he loved her, but she made a point of denying that fact because her heart wasn't ready to accept it due to the fear of betrayal, not unlike the one she witnessed her parents go through.

"Shh…" – Soul brought her up into a hug, cradling her as she cried into the crook of his neck. _Scratch that… fevers are worse than PMS…_ – he thought with an inward panic because he had absolutely no idea what was going on. Nonetheless he kept silently rocking her until she calmed down some.

"Maka." – he brought her face up to meet her gaze, some tears still shining at the corner of them. They stared at each other for a long minute, before the white-haired boy broke it off in his usual disinterested voice. – "Take some fever medicine."

That request was nothing Maka was expecting from their shared moment. She nodded with a little pout of disappointment and took the offered pills. After settling back down Soul placed a wet cloth on her forehead again, but made no moves to leave her side just yet, intending to wait until she fell asleep. But it never came. As if her natural stubbornness made it impossible.

"Way to start the New Year, isn't it?" – the meister commented after a short while.

"Yeah, really uncool." – her partner replied with a hint of sarcasm and humor, making her chuckle a bit that only led to a coughing fit. – "Cough syrup?"

"Ugh. Thanks, I think I'll pass. That stuff tastes vile." – Maka made a disgusted face at the viscous, fake sugary smelling liquid.

"Using your fancy words again, aren't we." – Soul smirked teasingly at his meister as he set the offending bottle down.

"Repugnant would have… been…" – she was interrupted by the need to sneeze, making her breath hitch before hiding under the blanket to let them go. – "Fancier." – his partner finished after the fit.

"My bad." – he handed her a pack of tissues. No amount of illness was going to take away her ability to pester him about his vocabulary it seemed. – "Do you want something to eat? Soup?"

"We both know that would just be a disaster." – Maka smiled knowingly at the thought of Soul trying anything more complex in the kitchen than scrambled eggs.

"I could just order some from the corner shop." – Soul shrugged at the jabbing.

"Nah, just come snuggle with me." – the words slipped from her mouth before she even realized what she had asked. It wasn't that they haven't watched movies on the couch together and ended up cuddling, but they have never been in each other's beds before. Certainly not together. Finding Soul with her in the morning was a surprise too, even if he was above the covers.

It seemed that this was exactly what her partner had in mind too because he didn't seem fazed or tried to get under the blankets with her, just motioned for her her scoot over a bit.

"No, come and actually snuggle with me under the blankets. I'm cold." – she clarified with a blush that was blissfully obscured by the flush on her cheeks because of the fever.

Soul stood there for a moment shocked by Maka's straightforwardness, then with a shrug got under the covers and hugged her to himself, trying furiously to keep the perverted thoughts out of his mind. _Okay, cool down, there is nothing wrong with this, she is just cold, I'm helping her to warm up. But damn her hot breath on my neck… Her soft skin touching mine… Damn it brain! She is sick! Shinigami please don't let Spirit find out about this!_

"Soul, stop freaking out." – Maka sighed, snuggling in further to make herself comfortable.

 _Right, at least there is no nosebleed like when Blair decides to be all close up and personal in the early hours of the morning._

As he calmed down he noticed his meister drifted off to sleep again, breathing heavily through her mouth, her face showing signs of discomfort. Kissing her forehead lightly he carefully slipped out from under her then exited the room.

Only to run into Blair.

"Ahoy, Soul! Being a naughty boy?" – the cat in human form asked with a wink, wiggling her index finger at him.

Soul almost blushed but then remembered that there was absolutely nothing to worry about, she couldn't possibly know what had happened inside.

"Maka is sick." – he stated simply in his usual cool voice, giving nothing away.

"Oh, poor girl, Death Scythe will be devastated to hear!" – Blair purred with pity.

"Are you meeting him?" – Soul raised an eyebrow at the kitty.

"Yeah, I'm working today at Chupa Cabra's, he is sure to stop by." – she looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully as she tapped her chin with her finger.

"I think he is the last person Maka would want to see right now, so please try and not tell him. We don't really need him kicking down the door with fatherly worry." – the scythe boy sighed as he pocketed his hands, making his way towards the kitchen.

Looking into the fridge he saw that they had practically no food, so grocery shopping was a necessity. Also he was still set on getting that large bowl of soup for Maka. Sooner or later she would have to eat and right now a good chicken broth would probably be best.

"When are you leaving for work?" – Soul asked from Blair.

"At 1 PM. ~Nya." – she reverted back into her kitten form and jumped on the table, watching what the white-haired weapon was doing. According to the clock it was 10 AM now.

"I gotta go run some errands, should be back by then. Mind watching Maka if she needs anything?" – he requested as he put his shoes back on, patting his pockets to make sure he had his wallet and keys, and headed out the door.

"Sure." – the cat replied as she licked her paws and rubbed them behind her ears.


	4. In the spirit of things

**A/N: Warning: slight lemony stuff towards the end, hence the M rating of the story.**

* * *

Soul sighed heavily as he hit the street to hunt down some food. The fresh air did wonders to clear his head. It was kind of weird to see Maka like this. She never shied away from expressing how much she cared for him, but it always seemed that it was merely on a professional, weapon-meister level. Yet, this morning… The white-haired boy shook his head to dismiss that train of thought. – _No don't go there, no need to get my hopes if there is no other significance behind it… she is just feverish…_

Equipped with the grocery bags, on his way back from the store the scythe weapon spotted someone in the distance whom he would have much rather avoided at the moment. None other than Spirit Albarn. Quickly ducking into a side street to his left to take a detour back home Soul exhaled in relief for being able to evade the encounter. _What the hell is he doing in this part of town now? Doesn't he have work with Lord Death at this time of the day?_ Oh, well, the little restaurant where he intended to buy the soup at was actually closer from this way anyway.

"Hey, Soul Eater, avoiding me much?" – came a grumpy voice two corners later from his right, making Soul almost jump out of his skin. So much for evasion… It seemed Death Scythe had spotted him too.

"Lay off, old man." – he groaned back after collecting his wits, strolling right past Maka's dad.

"Where is Maka, you usually go to the store together, don't you?" – _How the hell do you know that? Are you having us followed?_

"At home, resting." – Soul huffed, not stopping to chat.

"Why is she resting? Did something happen at the New Year's party? Did you get her drunk?" – Spirit screeched in outrage.

"Mind your own business. Don't you have work or something?" – the younger scythe weapon sighed disinterestedly.

"I do. Lord Death asked me to drop something off at Death Shipping." – he explained with surprising easy going attitude at first, then suddenly burst out yelling. – "But why the hell am I explaining myself to you? What have you done to my Maka?"

"Chill out! I didn't do anything." – Soul replied coolly, slurping in a little drool that accumulated because he forgot to swallow in the heat of the discussion. – "You could have taught your daughter that it isn't a great idea to go to the pool while getting ill though…" – he added almost inaudibly with thorough sarcasm.

"What? She is sick?" – Spirit exclaimed, clearly having caught that comment.

"Damn it..." – the red-eyed weapon groaned. – "Yes, she is under the weather, now may I go and buy her a damned bowl of soup for lunch?"

"I'll go with you!" – Death Scythe perked up and started walking faster like a man on a mission.

"Whatever." – Soul sighed with flat and bored resignation.

* * *

Reaching the apartment Spirit was still tagging along much to Soul's annoyance.

"Hurry up you dimwit, I want to see how my Maka is!" – Spirit trotted up with great vehemence on the stairs, shooting daggers with his eyes at the younger scythe for being slow in his opinion, not minding that his hands were full with bags.

 _Would you shut up already…_ – Soul gritted his teeth, his cool attitude starting to crack because of the obnoxious Death Scythe. He fumbled for his keys, trying to juggle the groceries in his arms.

"Come on, open the door!" – the redhead demanded again impatiently, but of course made no move to help the white-haired boy with the task. – "Fine I'll just open it myself!" – he exclaimed and transformed his arm to show his blades to get ready to tear the door down.

"Geez, knock it off!" – Evans yelled as he showed Spirit out of the way to open the door.

As they entered Blair was sitting at the kitchen table happily gobbling down some slightly burned fish that she had apparently made on the stove, leaving the dirty dishes in the sink for however was up to it to handle.

"Blair!" – Death Scythe perked up instantly with amorous intent evident in his voice.

"Hey, there!" – the cat in woman form looked up surprised at the man's arrival. Soul tried to signal her to drag the old fart away before Maka could notice that he was there. – "Why don't we go for a walk? I ought to leave for Chupa Cabra's anyway." – she grabbed the man by the arm turning him around and pulling him towards the entrance, glancing back at Soul, questioning the reason why he was there in the first place. The scythe weapon just rolled his eyes at her from which she seemed to understand without further explanation that Spirit had forced his way to the apartment without his consent.

"Sure thing!" – Maka's dad agreed without hesitation, seemingly his sick daughter forgotten without another thought.

The white-haired boy sighed in relief once they were out the door. _Crisis averted. Who knew that once it would be a rather lucky thing that Blair lived with them…_ He quickly put all the stuff he bought away then headed for the bathroom. Not paying attention he unsuspectingly entered without knocking or noticing that the light was on in there.

Glancing up, the sight of Maka in the tub – fully naked I might add – greeted him. It was so unexpected and surprising that for a moment he couldn't look away, then he fell backwards with a huge nose-bleed, preparing for the worst. Namely a mega Maka-chop that would possibly split his head right open as soon as she collected her wits – and hopefully garments.

But nothing happened.

"Soul, I can't get out. Could you send Blair in." – she whispered after a few seconds, closing her eyes, holding onto the side of the tub for her dear life.

"She left." – _with your dad_ – he wanted to add but stopped himself. No need to upset her. Actually he had absolutely no energy or will to explain why he wound up at their apartment in the first place.

"Oh. Well, that's a problem." – Maka sighed as another dizzy spell washed over her.

"Why are you taking a bath?" – Soul inquired, purposefully still not looking. He was positive when he left that she would still be sleeping when he got back.

"I was cold and Blair thought that taking a hot bath was the best way to warm me up." – the meister confessed as she tried to hang onto her consciousness. – "It was no use telling her that it was a bad idea. She just went ahead and floated me in with magic despite my protests."

"Damn that kitty, seriously." – the red-eyed weapon groaned rubbing his face in exasperation, now that he paid attention the bathroom was rather steamy that indicated that Maka was not joking about the scalding bath. No doubt it did nothing beneficial for her already high fever. At least Blair could have warned him when they arrived. But no… _At least Spirit wasn't still here to witness this._

He got up with his eyes closed and fumbled around trying to find Maka's towel then shuffled over to the bathtub, his hand offered for her to take while holding out the towel too.

"Can you stand?" – Soul asked, eyes still closed but turning his head away too just in case.

"Yeah, I think." – Maka replied, grabbing onto his hand and pulling herself up, but her legs gave out as she slipped a bit and her partner instinctively caught her. Luckily wrapping the towel around her in the process too.

"All clear?" – he inquired if it was safe to open his eyes and she was at least semi-decent.

"Uhum." – she mumbled in embarrassment.

With the permission to use his sight again Soul strode out of the bathroom with Maka in his arms to take her back to her room.

He set her down on the bed then bailed from the room faster than a bat from hell before his meister could come to her senses about what had just transpired between them and left her to dress. As he closed the door behind himself he slid to the floor panting slightly, his head rested back against the door.

"Are you hungry?" – Soul asked flatly after a few minutes. – "I brought soup."

"That would be great." – came the tentative response from the other side of the door.

The white-haired boy clambered to his feet and walked into the kitchen to warm up the chicken broth. After setting it on a tray he made his way back to the door then after a big calming breath to regain his cool he knocked and entered after being granted permission.

Maka was sitting back under the covers on her bed, dressed in a warm hoodie that awfully looked like one of Soul's, seemingly unaffected – at least in a negative way – from their way too intimate encounter not 10 minutes ago. _She must be exhausted and dizzy from that hot bath – what was Blair thinking… seriously…_ – _maybe she needs help eating?_

Without thinking further about it, he set the tray in his meister's lap and started to reach for the spoon to feed her when he caught sight of her arched brows and questioning stare.

"I can eat by myself, you know. I'm not an invalid." – Maka huffed but there was no real anger behind it, more like a little bit of humor.

"Right." – Soul nodded after a second as he leaned back in Maka's desk chair that he had taken up residence in. _Wow… talk about uncool… I must have looked like a real dork in her eyes just now._

As the ash-blond girl sipped her soup in silence, spoonful by spoonful, her weapon partner just stared into space, his face a bit aloof. Noticing this Maka decided to try and cheer him up a bit.

"You know, we could watch a movie afterwards." – she chimed a bit too fast and ended up coughing a bit.

"So that you could snooze on my shoulder again?" – the white-haired boy teased with a toothy grin.

"That _was_ quite nice actually, thank you very much." – Maka confessed and blushed a bit as she recalled the previous day's activities and how warm and comfortable she felt in Soul's embrace.

"So what do you want to watch?" – the red-eyed weapon inquired after his partner slurped the last of her soup in her mouth.

"Surprise me!" – the blond meister offered with a small smile before grabbing her blanket to keep herself warm out in the living room.

To tell the truth… The Grudge wasn't exactly what Maka had in mind when she let the reins over to her all too gore loving partner. In 20/20 hindsight that frighteningly wide smirk that Soul gave her should have been a warning that something like this might ought to have been on his mind.

One thing was for sure: falling asleep on her weapon was definitely not one of her worries at the moment. Hiding in the crook of his neck every time something scary happened on screen might have been embarrassing but the scythe master was well beyond caring at this point.

And besides, this also meant that she was thoroughly cuddled which warded off the shivers and shuddering that may or may not have been from her fever. Or from the movie. She couldn't tell.

"Okay, I need something light-hearted after this abomination of horror movie you put me through or I'm never going to end up falling asleep for the next three days." – Maka sighed with relief when it was finally over.

Even though she understood Soul's need for this kind of disturbing imagery – that's just the way he was, he thrived on things that usually set everyone else little bit on edge – and she didn't mind this trait of him, not one bit, but still she just couldn't see the appeal of it for herself. It was same with his music. It was something that was just inherently part of him and actually just added to the fondness Maka held for her partner because it was something uniquely him.

"Hello, Earth to Maka!" – Soul waved a hand in front of his meister's face effectively snapping her out of her reverie.

"Hm. What?" – the ash-blond girl looked up at her partner unfocused.

"I asked if Scary Movie was okay with you. It's funny at least…" – the red-eyed weapon trailed off as he scratched his chin. Technically still a horror movie even if it was a parody and thus instantly losing any fright-factor in his opinion but he wanted to make sure Maka could handle it, given that she wanted something light-hearted.

She frowned a bit at the prospect of the movie. On one hand she wanted Soul to enjoy himself too and that was only possible with horror movies and awfully dorky parody like comedy films, the humor of which didn't quite reach Maka even on her best days. She enjoyed more relaxed, high-spirited comedies, or more serious, independent films. Or the overly emotional stuff that she wouldn't even have dared to mention to Soul. It would have been really 'uncool' in his opinion. On the other hand she wasn't sure if she could sit through another horror/non-horror movie right now, since she knew very well that even these parodies liked to play with the jump scare factor and she would have much rather just relaxed back into the pillows than try to anticipate when to hide behind Soul or have her heart skip a beat or two out of sheer surprise at something suddenly appearing on screen.

A cool hand on her forehead brought her back to the present again. Maka glanced up only to find Soul's displeased frown mimicking her own.

"I think your fever spiked, you keep spacing out on me." – he muttered as he tried to gauge his meister's temperature.

"I was just trying to decide if I was up for another adrenalin rush." – she let out a sigh as she leaned into their touch which felt oddly reassuring and nice.

"Yeah, I agree, you need something less exciting." – Soul commented. – "And maybe some fever medicine." – he added in almost a whisper a bit guiltily, getting up from the couch to go to Maka's room to get it for her, returning with not only that but the thermometer too.

As he made his way to his partner he heard her go into another sneezing fit then blow her nose so hard in one of the many tissues lying on the table that Soul was wondering how her ears didn't pop at that. Right on cue she winced a little.

"Do your ears hurt?" – he asked as he handed her the stuff. _An ear infection would be just perfect on top of everything else…_

"No, my sinuses." – his meister groaned in pain as she rubbed at her cheekbones then took the thermometer from her partner, since no doubt that's why he brought it. – "That bath actually helped earlier a bit to breathe better." – she mumbled with the stick already in her mouth.

"Don't talk, you will throw off the reading." – Soul chided. –"I can boil some water for inhalation if you want." – the weapon offered a few seconds later as he waited for the device to beep.

"Maybe later, I just want to lie here with you on the couch for now." – Maka stated after handing he thermometer back.

"103.6. Shit. Maybe we should go up to the school infirmary." – the albino boy wondered out loud.

"I don't want to bother them over the New Year weekend. I promise you can drag me up there if I'm not better by Monday." – she pleaded, trying to drag Soul by the arms of his sweater to sit back down beside her but the effort didn't even budge him. He relented without another word but her lack of strength was really worrying him.

Since being "trapped" by Maka he flipped through the channels to see if there was anything worthwhile on TV instead his DVDs so that he didn't have to get up again while she took the fever reducers to ease his mind.

"Oh, that's a good one." – she stopped him as they flicked to a movie that was just beginning. _The Time Traveler's Wife_ – Soul thought about it for a second. He hasn't heard of it before, but it sounded like some sort of sci-fi. _I can live with that._ – he shrugged and set the remote down, leaning back against the arm rest sideways, Maka against him.

Two minutes in he already knew just how wrong he was. _Romance – yuck._ But Maka seemed content on watching it, so he decided to tough it out for her sake. She needed her rest and this was clearly more for her taste. So instead Soul watched his partner all cozied up to him, feeling her rhythmic although a bit shallow breathing. All he could really see was the top of her head turned towards the TV with her ash-blond hair sprawled out on him. Somehow she ended up lying on his chest with her body between his legs, not bothered one bit by the intimacy.

Her fevered, hot body pressed against him in ways he only dreamt of till now. He tried to rein in his line of thought since her stomach was pressed right against his manhood and surely she would feel it if he were to get an erection. Imagining that didn't help at all with his quest.

As if reading his thoughts Maka turned her head to look right into his eyes. A blush crept on his face as she smiled at him seductively, propping herself up to crawl a bit higher so that their faces were at level with each other.

"Soul, there is something I have wanted to do for a very long time now." – his meister whispered into his ear in a velvety voice, all raspiness from her illness gone from it, then nibbled on his earlobe, sending sweet shivers of pleasure down his side.

He couldn't help but moan a bit in appreciation that only seemed to entice the green-eyed goddess on top of him to continue with her ministrations down his neck. Her warm hands had wandered under his sweater, roaming freely on his abdomen and chest, exploring every inch of skin, feeling the muscles underneath, tracing even his scar that spread across his torso.

Her touch danced on the fine line of being pleasurable and tickling, driving Soul mad with anticipation. Much like her thighs, her slim but oh so sexily muscled thighs with their soft skin pressed against his own. _When did she take her pants off?_ – the thought crossed his mind but couldn't bother to linger on it for long because Maka started undressing him. First his hoodie fell victim to her eager hands then she started fumbling with his belt to relieve him of his pants.

She kept her own sweater on, probably to avoid getting cold, but Soul would have given anything to see her perky breasts, her nipples stand at attention from the slight chill from how the room would have surely felt compared to the warmed air trapped between her skin and the fabric.

He reached up to feel her skin on her hips but Maka sternly held his hands down above his head and continued to kiss, nibble and lightly suckle her way to his collarbone. Then trusting him to not move his hands she released him and began to inch her way downwards, brushing her hand against him along the way.

She rubbed his cock with her hand, first above his boxer briefs but then on a bold whim she reached inside, grabbing it, not too hard but not too lightly either. _It was… just perfect…_ – Soul thought. – _Almost as if I was doing it for myself… just better._

"Soul?" – Maka's worried voice reached him.

"Hmm?" – he hummed still too lost in the pleasure to really respond.

"Soul, wake up." – she insisted.

At that his eyes jerked open and he looked around disoriented. Maka was sitting by his side – fully clothed – staring at him questioningly. Soul now noticed that he was still fully clothed too.

"Don't tell me that deep inside your tolerance for romance is just about as bad as mine for horror. I thought you were having a nightmare." – his meister arched a brow at him. In the background the movie was still going on.

 _Nightmare? When did I fall asleep? Was I dreaming just now? But then why do my pants feel wet and sticky…_

"Oh, shit!" – the red-eyed weapon jumped up panicking and ran out to the bathroom, leaving behind a stunned Maka, who had no idea what had just happened.

Once in the safety and privacy of the bathroom Soul groaned at himself. – _Having a wet dream about your partner… who is sick with a high fever I might add… So not cool…_


	5. Avoidance

Maka watched her partner rush out of the living room and close the bathroom door on himself with a loud bang. She couldn't help but worry. _Was he ill?_ But no retching sound came her way and she just couldn't imagine what could be wrong.

She woke Soul up because he kept twitching and scrunching his face together in sleep. The ash-blonde genuinely thought that he had a nightmare but judging from his reaction that wasn't it.

Maka sat there feeling a bit bereft, hugging the blanket to herself as she pulled up her feet to her chest and kept on watching Rachel McAdams wait for her husband while he traveled through time to pop up at various random points during her own timeline. She could empathize with her just now, given her partner's recent disappearing act.

Not having the energy to keep herself upright without using Soul as a cushion she lied down on the sofa. The movie was nearing its end as her eyelids kept fluttering, getting heavier and heavier with each blink.

* * *

A good hour passed before Soul had the guts to go out of the bathroom again. Cleaning himself up had been easy but the problem was that he had no change of underwear with him.

Sneaking out as quietly as he could, he made for his room to find something to wear. Getting that out of the way, he went back into the living room where he found that their movie had ended and some silly magazine show was on. Rounding the couch he saw that Maka had fallen asleep, curled up in a ball on her left side, breathing heavily, her cheeks still flushed, clutching a bunch of tissues in her right hand that she had brought up almost to her face.

Deciding not to disturb her – given that he didn't really feel up to facing her to find out what she had perceived of the whole thing yet anyway – he turned the TV off and made sure that the blanket was covering her everywhere, especially her middle, then retreated to his room.

Maka vaguely registered the sound of Soul's room door closing as she stirred from her sleep. The room was dark, the only source of light was from the moonshine filtering in through the window since he had turned off the TV. She felt a little better so probably the meds had kicked in and brought her fever down a bit. She got up and refilled her glass with water to get a drink.

Deciding that it was probably best to retire for the night the ash-blonde meister grabbed the blanket from the sofa. On her way to her room she pondered whether to see what Soul was up to but then decided against it and just went straight into her own. Settling down she grabbed a book from her stand and read for a while before sleep claimed her again.

Unfortunately it didn't last very long because soon she woke up again with the urge to cough. Maka secretly hoped that Soul would come rushing in to see how she was but he never came. _Maybe he was asleep…_

* * *

Soul was mortified beyond belief. He had heard Maka use the kitchen faucet then go back to her room. He wondered if she wanted company based on their track record of the past two days. Then his dream came to his mind again, nearly giving him a nosebleed. _Nope… there was no way I could face Maka just now…_ For a good two hours he just sat there on his bed staring before himself.

Then he heard her coughing through the wall, but before he could gather the courage to check on her the fit subsided. And he was left in the silence again. He got ready for sleep but all he could do was stare at the ceiling, too anxious to actually drift off.

Some time later there was a knock on his door.

"Yeah?" – he called out after a few seconds pretending to have just woken up, hoping that Maka wasn't trying to gauge his reactions via the use of Soul Perception.

"Hey…" – Maka trailed off as she opened the door and leaned against the doorframe, a hint of vulnerability in her voice. Soul wouldn't meet her eyes. Awkwardness and tension was palpable from his soul wavelengths, so instead of asking if she could sleep with him another question formed in her mind. – "Are you angry with me for some reason?"

 _Right. Shit._ The only times he had ever ignored her was when something she had done bothered him.

"If it's about the movie I'm sorry, I know you don't like that sappy stuff." – she whispered trying to figure out what was going on but also to lighten the mood.

"No, it's not that." – Soul offered, but still not looking her way which was starting to seriously piss Maka off. Or would have if she could muster the energy for it.

"Did I do something wrong?" – the ash-blonde girl asked again, a bit hurt by the way her partner was acting towards her just now.

"No. I'm sorry, I'm just really tired." – he said turning on his side away from Maka that effectively shut her out and signaled to leave him alone. She left without another word, closing the door behind her quietly.

 _Wow… way to go Soul… way to be a complete jerk to her…_ – he groaned inwardly as he buried his face in his hands.

The problem was that all he could see now when looking at his partner was her doing all sorts naughty stuff to him. Which – when he thought about it further – was anything but the way Maka would actually act, so clearly it was all in his head.

Sleep was really long ways away for him.

* * *

Saturday morning found Maka feeling much better. Physically at least. Her fever was down to 101.2 and aside from a runny nose and few sneezes and coughs here and there, she was pretty fine. Her mood though… Well, the only time she felt lower was when Soul got sliced during their first battle with Crona, and Maka had tripped herself up with guilt.

She felt… rejected. Yes, that was the right word. The meister had no idea what was going on with her partner. One minute it seemed everything was fine – they were watching a movie like usual – then in the next he was not looking her in the eye and practically giving her the silent treatment.

It was still pretty early in the morning so it wasn't unusual for the red-eyed boy to be sleeping, especially on weekends. Using this time she had, Maka decided to call Tsubaki, since she was surely up by now.

"Hi." – her raven-haired friend's calm and warm voice greeted Maka.

"Hey there, Tsubaki." – the green-eyed meister answered back as she made her way back to her room with the phone.

"Maka, hi, are you feeling any better?" – she replied frantically once she recognized the voice. – "Kid told us when we finally got up yesterday that you went home from the party with a fever." – worry was evident in the shadow weapon's voice.

"I'm a bit better now, I was pretty out of it all day yesterday." – Maka admitted.

"You sound pretty stuffed up. Did you catch a cold?" – Tsubaki questioned further. Sometimes Maka thought that she was like a mother to all of them. Especially Black*Star.

"Yeah, something like that." – _colds don't really come with fevers above a 102, so it's probably the flu_ , but she didn't add that bit.

"I'm pretty sure you knew you weren't well when you came to school the day before yesterday, right?" – how the tall girl could sound sweet and admonishing at the same time Maka will never know.

"Yeah, you caught me there." – the ash-blonde laughed embarrassedly, making her cough a bit.

"Seriously…" – Tsubaki sighed, deciding to skip the lecture on proper self-care and how colds and damp, cool places didn't mix. – "You are keeping warm now though, right?"

"Yes, _mom_." – Maka teased.

"I'm not that bad, am I?" – the ninja suddenly jumped at the implications of how she was behaving, her naturally mellow nature seeping through, trying to get along with everyone.

"No, you are fine." – the blonde laughed, but it died down quickly as she remembered why she was calling in the first place.

"Why do I get the feeling that something else is up?" – Tsubaki inquired, suddenly worried again.

"It's…" – Maka began, unsure of what she should say. – "It's Soul."

"What did he do?" – Tsubaki asked bluntly.

"Nothing… I don't know." – the meister hesitated for a bit. – "One minute everything was fine, he was really sweet, taking care of me, then all of a sudden he ran off and locked himself in the bathroom. At first I thought he might have caught what I had and was sick, but I didn't hear him vomit or anything. Then he has been avoiding me since."

"Did you try asking him about it?" – the raven-haired girl suggested.

"He said he was just tired, but I could feel the tension in the air between us." – Maka recalled last night. In the end she slept by herself but it would have been nice to have Soul there. _Maybe I was crossing a line with my request to sleep in the same bed with my partner?_

"You know…" – the shadow weapon began with a sigh. – "Men are really quite literal beings. If he said he was tired, it just might be it. I mean he had a long night too, getting drunk, then he was all worried about you. Maybe he really was just exhausted and wanted the night to himself."

"Yeah, you are right. I'm probably just making a mountain out of a molehill." – Maka tried to sound enthusiastic and placated by her friend's words. – "I mean we are just partners, it's not like we have to be sewed together at the hip, right?" – she laughed again awkwardly.

Tsubaki rolled her eyes at the other end of the line where of course Maka wouldn't be able to see. _She was really oblivious, wasn't she…_

"So, spill the beans, how has Soul been taking care of you?" – the ninja changed subjects with a cheerful tone, effectively sending her blond friend on a spiel about how great her partner was for checking on her all the time, bringing her soup, watching movies with her, cuddling her when she was cold.

 _Clueless… utterly clueless…_ – Tsubaki thought.

* * *

Feeling much more light-hearted after the girl talk and seeing that Soul still wasn't around, Maka decided to make some breakfast. Eggs and bacon… Her stomach wasn't feeling up to the bacon yet, but Soul would surely appreciate it.

Maybe the lightly sizzling and delicious smelling bacon did its trick because within minutes the white-haired boy was up and checking out what was going on in the kitchen. He paused at the corner, leaning against the wall as he watched Maka's back while she was busy.

"Good morning!" – his meister greeted him cheerfully without turning, obviously sensing his presence without having to look.

"Good morning." – Soul replied in a low, gruff voice, which stopped Maka in her tracks for a second.

"Oh, no. I got you sick, didn't I?" – she turned around as she just got ready with the food and set it on the plates on the table that she had placed earlier. Now bacon didn't seem like such a good idea anymore.

"Just a sore throat, don't sweat it." – the white-haired boy shrugged, his eyes on the food. He couldn't sleep last night and after those few hours of shut-eye that he could get nearing the early hours of dawn, he woke up feeling a bit crap. But he didn't want his meister to feel guilty about it.

 _So we are still in the not looking me in the eye phase._ – Maka sighed. She wished she knew what was wrong. Besides infecting him with her germs, because that didn't seem to bother Soul at all.

"That's how it started for me too." – the meister commented, pulling her mouth into a thin line.

"Well, I'm not gonna go to the pool today so I will probably be fine." – Soul stated flatly, full of sarcasm.

"Not you too!" – Maka exclaimed frustratedly. _Why was everyone on her case today?_

"Who else had the pleasure of telling you off?" – he smirked with that mischievous toothy grin that always got Maka's heart beating a bit louder.

"Tsubaki. We talked on the phone in the morning. She is seriously a mother hen sometimes." – she revealed with a smile of her own, because honestly she wouldn't have her friend any other way.

"Well, it's still true. How are you by the way?" – Soul glanced at her, their eyes meeting for a split second before he averted his gaze again.

"Better I guess. My fever is more manageable." – Maka sighed and laid her head down on the table once she finished eating, waiting on her partner to fork the rest of it in his mouth too.

"Clearly." – the white-haired boy chuckled at her since it was obvious that even keeping her head up required too much effort on her part at the moment, but it just induced a few dry coughs on his rough throat.

"Are you sure you are fine?" – the green-eyed meister turned her head towards him, trying to assess his condition more closely. He looked a bit paler than normal, but not exactly feverish.

"Yeah, yeah. A little cold's not going to knock me off my feet." – he waved off her concerns, getting up to collect the dishes to place them in the sink. After inconspicuously throwing the bacon out that didn't seem to agree with his stomach at the moment, but he didn't want to let Maka know that.

"If you are sure, I'm going to go lie down. It seems I wasn't that up to cooking just yet." – Maka stated hesitantly.

"Okay." – Soul replied nonchalantly as he fumbled around the kitchen to avoid having to turn around.

"Okay." – the blond girl repeated dejectedly then turned around and left for her room.

* * *

 _Soul! Get your shit together!_ – the weapon sighed to himself as he sagged a bit against the counter once Maka was gone. He did the dishes sluggishly, realizing when he got to the pan at the bottom that Blair never returned home the previous night. _Probably entertaining Death Scythe or something._

Soul was sure he had a low-grade fever, despite denying it to Maka earlier. He could just feel it in his heavy eyes. Although that could have been from the lack of sleep.

He wanted to cuddle up with Maka. The weapon could fully understand his meister's earlier need for it too now. Being miserable when sick was enough of a pain on its own, let alone being lonely too. Interestingly he never felt any urge for anything like this before meeting Maka. His mother was always a bit withdrawn in personality so she didn't offer stuff like this when they were ill with Wes while they were kids.

On the other hand, he feared that his dirty mind would go off on its own again. Or that all he would be able think about once near Maka was that dream. Sucking it up, he decided to make a lemon-honey tea for the both of them and brought it to her room in hopes of placating his partner with it.

"Want some tea?" – he asked through the door.

"Sure!" – Maka perked up on the other side of the door, setting the book she had been reading in bed aside.

"Mind if I join you?" – Soul inquired as he set the tray down on the bedside table, gesturing towards the bed to indicate that he wanted to get under the covers with her too. He _was_ feeling a bit cold. Good as an excuse as any.

The ash-blond meister didn't reply for a second due to being stunned by the sudden change in attitude.

"No. I mean sure. Come on up." – she nodded with wide-eyed surprise, pushing the blanket back and scooting over to make room for her weapon partner.

Soul scrambled in beside her and as Maka adjusted the covers again he handed her the mug with her tea. She hummed in approval as the warmth seeped in through her hands. The aroma of it was so distinct that she could recognize it even with her blocked nose.

"Lemon-honey?" – the ash-blonde asked without opening her eyes and just enjoying the hot steam as it cleared her sinuses a bit.

"Yeah." – her partner confirmed as he sipped a little on his tea, ultimately burning his tongue.

Maka chuckled at her impatient weapon as he jerked back a bit from the scalding beverage.

"Not cool." – he huffed back.

"Yes, that's the whole point of a hot tea." – she teased with a small smile as she blew on hers.

"You know that's not what I meant." – Soul sunk in further into the pillow in mock sulking.

"I know." – Maka maintained. – "But it was hard to pass up."

The white-haired boy rolled his eyes but a smile crept up on his face too.

They sipped their tea in silence, which soothed both of their aching throats to a great degree. Until Blair waltzed in through the window in cat form, apparently opening it with magic from the outside. She transformed back to human form and smirked at the pair of them.

"Aren't you two kiddos just cute. Being sick together, sipping your teas in bed with each other." – Blair purred with a mischievous and all-knowing smile.

"How did you know that Soul got sick too?" – Maka looked at her questioningly.

"Cats can just tell these things." – she winked at them, then started frantically looking around in the room, checking the corners, going even as far as ducking under the bed as if she had lost something. – "Ah, there it is. I knew I left it somewhere around here!" – the cat witch exclaimed suddenly pulling a set of sexy lingerie out from under the bed.

Soul spluttered his tea out in surprise, while Maka's face turned ash white from shock.

"W-what… what the hell is your underwear doing under my bed?" – she stuttered out in disbelief.

"I was supposed to bring it to work but left it here accidentally." – Blair laughed it off. – "Silly me."

The weapon-meister duo was speechless and tried to hide their embarrassment from the situation with sipping more tea. Bad idea.

"Want me to try it on to see how it looks, Soul?" – the purple hatted kitty inquired with a sly smile, making Soul almost expire as he swallowed the wrong way and subsequently coughing his lungs up. But there was no nosebleed to his surprise.

"I'm sick dammit, leave me alone." – he managed to huff once he gathered his wits, looking anywhere but Blair to hide his blush. There was only a certain meister he would have wanted to see in that thing.

"Anyway, get well soon guys, and behave yourselves!" – Blair playfully wiggled her index finger at them then skipped to the door and left with a whirlwind behind her since she left the window open.

"I'll get it." – Maka offered, handing her cup to Soul, quickly getting up on her knees and closing the window beside the bed before the warmth could escape from the room.

Turning to settle back in her bed she noticed Soul spacing out. Maka placed her hand on his forehead to see if he was feverish at all which prompted him to look at her. They gazed into each other's eyes for the first time since last night when the red-eyed boy ran out of the living room in a big hurry. It took the ash-blond meister a few seconds to realize that given her own elevated temperature she wouldn't be able to tell if he had a fever this way. She blushed a bit at her mistake and got back under blankets, her partner's eyes still on her.

"I'm fine, don't worry." – Soul insisted as he drank more tea, his voice considerably gruffer from the earlier episode.

"I would be calmer if you actually took your temperature." – Maka asserted as she retrieved her mug from the white-haired boy.

"Would have to wait a half an hour after this." – he raised the drink in his hand to indicate what he was referring to, Maka needing no further explanation to the fact that the reading would off because of the hot beverage they had drunk. – "And we only have your thermometer in here anyway."

"I think the concern of passing on germs to each other is a moot point right now." – the ash-blonde rolled her eyes at her weapon.

"Oh, so you wouldn't mind an indirect kiss from me then if I used yours?" – Soul asked teasingly, preparing for a Maka-chop for his comment, but his meister remained motionless, not uttering a single word for a long while.

"I was just kidding. Don't worry, I will get myself another thermometer from the bathroom cabinet later." – he said, then placed his cup down on the bedside table and scooted down in bed. Turning on his side, facing Maka he was snoring within seconds, the sleepless night catching up with him.

"No, I wouldn't mind at all." – Maka whispered as she watched her albino weapon's chest rise and fall with every even, deep breath he took.


	6. Rollercoaster

_I wouldn't mind kissing Soul…_ – the realization was hard and shocking as it hit Maka. Her mind was going a 100 miles an hour trying to process the things she had been feeling but suppressing till now.

She watched her partner sleep as she pondered on it. _Did he feel the same way?_ Her gut instinct said yes, but all those times she called her flat-chested, ' _tiny-tits'_ , came unbidden to her mind too. How he told off even her father for suggesting that a cool guy like him would settle for someone like her. But then again, there were so many other times when he would have sacrificed himself for her, protecting her, the way he cared for her during these past few days. The way he opened up to her like to no one else.

Soul wasn't that good with people, Maka knew that well. He hid behind his weird tastes and sarcasm to ward everyone off. The meister knew that before he had met her he had a hard time even touching someone, like holding hands or hugging, always keeping a distance both physically and emotionally. Except with her. Despite being completely different people their resonance was remarkable as partners. They understood each other on such a deep level that baffled almost anyone that knew them. Maka chuckled to herself at the times she read books on music to try and get to know her weapon more, since that just wasn't her forte. But it was something important to Soul so she tried her very best. Of course they had their bickering moments, but who didn't.

 _Was all that just regular weapon-meister stuff or something more?_

Soul sniffled a bit in his sleep, pulling the blanket closer to himself. Maka felt an urge deep inside her to comfort him, to make sure he was alright but didn't act on it, since she didn't want to disturb him.

 _Okay, no denying it, I love Soul._ – the ash-blonde girl smiled as she made that abundantly and irrevocably clear to herself. No wonder she felt so rejected yesterday when he had ran out on her without an explanation.

Speaking of rejections. _What was up with him then? Should I bring it up, or just let it be?_ He seemed to have gotten past whatever was going on by now. Given that he came down with a cold this morning it could quite possibly be that he was unwell already in the evening too.

 _But why had he been avoiding my gaze? Did he just want to hide the fact he was getting ill to spare me from feeling guilty? He did let up with it after I found out too…_ Not that he could have denied it with his already low voice becoming even lower and all rough. It was actually quite sexy, in her opinion, the thought making her squirm.

Blushing at her own reaction she decided to read instead to take her mind off of things. The problem was that do that she had to reach over Soul since her book was on the nightstand on his side of the bed. Inching really carefully she managed to grab it without waking her partner up but as she settled back in bed he stirred.

"Ugh, too hot." – the red-eyed boy groaned as he threw the covers half way off of himself, even though he seemed to have been cold just a few minutes ago.

"You are supposed to stay warm, remember?" – Maka turned towards him, propping herself up on her elbow.

Soul squinted at his partner, just barely opening one eye. _The pot calling the kettle black._ But grudgingly he pulled the blanket back up to his chest.

"Come, let's check your fever." – the ash-blonde girl leaned back over her weapon to retrieve the thermometer, her torso brushing slightly against his as she stretched to reach it, getting Soul all flustered and blushing at the close contact.

"Open up." – she nudged him when he kept staring at her. After another few seconds later he obliged, never taking his eyes off of her.

 _She seems happy. Or at least at peace._ – Soul concluded to himself. – _What the hell happened while I slept? Did I say something unconsciously? Is she still feverish? She does seem quite flushed still, but she looks relaxed, less miserable than yesterday._

"100.2" – Maka announced once it beeped. – "That's not too bad."

"Your turn." – the white-haired boy insisted when he saw that she was about to place the thermometer back in its place.

"Okay." – his meister agreed without a second thought, already popping the stick in her mouth. Soul's eyes went wide.

"I was only joking earlier!" – he exclaimed loudly, which made him cough so he turned his head away. Maka didn't reply since her mouth was occupied at the moment but her eyes spoke of great amusement on her part. _I really am missing something, right? Or her brain just overheated already?_

He snatched the thing out of her mouth as soon as it beeped, wanting to see it for himself. _101.3._

"Satisfied?" – she lied back down on her pillow with a smile on her face.

"Not exactly but I guess it's better than yesterday." – Soul concluded as he put the thermometer back and made himself comfortable again in bed, facing Maka.

They gazed into each other's eyes for a while without saying anything, but the silence wasn't uncomfortable or awkward at all. Then all of a sudden Maka brought her hands up to her face and turned her head downwards to sneeze. Then again. And again. She resurfaced a bit later when she thought that the fit had passed.

"All done?" – Soul smirked in amusement. She wanted to answer him but instead hid again and went back to sneezing. – "Apparently not."

"Ugh." – she groaned frustratedly when she was finally able to breathe normally again. Her weapon kept looking at her with an unnamable emotion in his eyes. – "What?" – Maka inquired.

"Nothing…" – he blushed.

"Soul! Spill it." – the ash-blond girl insisted.

"It's just that your sneezes are kind of…" – his breath hitched as a sudden tickle overtook him too. – "Cute." – he managed to say before going into a fit of his own. His sneezed were less like Maka's small feminine ones. More forceful and loud, engaging all the muscles in his upper body.

"Bless you." – his meister offered once he calmed down too.

"This really sucks." – Soul whined so uncharacteristically of him as a shiver ran up his spine, making him feel cold once again.

"I know. I'm sorry." – she apologized as she brushed his bangs out of his forehead.

"Not your fault." – he maintained coolly.

"Kind of is." – Maka laughed at his attempts to spare her.

"Nothing could have kept me away, so not really." – the white-haired boy sighed closing his eyes as he relished in his partner's touch.

"How about I make some more tea?" – she suggested as she got back in a sitting position.

"You are still sicker than me, so I should do it." – Soul tried to insist as the green-eyed meister crawled over him to get out of bed.

"I feel okay now, so stay." – Maka pushed him back down firmly. She grabbed her warm knitted sweater off the back of her chair and threw it over her shoulders as she sauntered out of the room with the tray that held the remains of their previous batch of hot beverages.

In all truth she was feeling a bit queasy from her breakfast as it proved to be a bit too heavy for her stomach, so she decided on making a sweet ginger green tea with licorice and orange peel plus a hint of rosehip. Really a perfect blend for just this situation. While she waited for the water to boil she quickly tidied up the living room where all her yesterday's tissues were still scattered about. After giving her nose a good blow, she made her way back to her room only to find a truly hilarious scene.

"Hey, hey Maka! Maka look, I'm a burrito." – Soul called out to her goofily, bundled up in a big roll of puff that were her covers. Obviously he was feeling cold but this was just way over the top.

"All I see is a moron in a blanket." – Maka sighed a bit irked by her partner's shenanigans. – "In my blanket to be exact." – she added once she realized that they had shared that one so far. Without another word she left again once she set the tray down.

"Wait, where are you going?" – the weapon exclaimed, alarmed a bit by his partner's reaction for a moment but within less than a minute she was back with his covers and pillow that she had obviously gotten from his room.

"Here, so that we can be more comfortable." – the ash-blonde held out the stuff, waiting on Soul to unravel himself from that – _burrito_ for lack of a better word – but he just shook his head stubbornly, refusing to return it to her. – "Fine." – Maka sighed after a few moments and pushed him up against the wall to make room for herself and bundled up with his blanket.

She could sort of smell her idiotic partner's scent on it. It was boyish and oh so familiar, comforting. Simply just him. The green-eyed girl snuggled up against it sighing contently while Soul eyed her in amusement.

"Something you like?" – he smirked to himself at her reaction while he undid that obnoxious burrito and just simply covered himself with the blanket.

"Very." – she smiled embarrassedly, blushing slightly. _Is she flirting with me? For real?_ – Soul was surprised by her straightforwardness.

He just couldn't help but remember his dream-Maka again, making him blush and avert his gaze again.

"What is it, Soul?" – his meister got serious again, sitting back up, determined to get to the bottom of it.

"Nothing." – Soul huffed irritatedly.

"It's not 'nothing', you are doing it again." – she insisted, looking sternly at him.

"Doing what?" – he started playing dumb.

"Not looking at me." – Maka stated unwaveringly.

 _Crap. I'm really obvious, aren't I?_ – he remained stubbornly silent. The ash-blond girl sighed heavily when it became apparent that Soul was shutting her out again.

She reached for their mugs, offering one to her partner. The sweet gesture that came despite his difficult attitude at the moment warmed his heart. After a few sips he decided to speak up.

"I had a dream." – Soul began hesitantly. – "Yesterday." – he added just to make it clear.

"What about?" – Maka asked softly, without sounding too desperate to know, although curiosity was just about killing her now.

"You." – he stated curtly, trying to keep the embarrassment out of his voice.

The ash-blonde meister kept looking at him questioningly.

"A very… graphic dream." – the red-eyed boy blushed even deeper with the confession, giving up on trying to maintain any kind of cool appearance.

"Oh." – Maka hummed at first. – "OH." – she exclaimed suddenly as the meaning of those words finally sank in. Her instinctual reaction was to smack her perverted partner across the head with a book. A very heavy one at that, but as she swung her arm above her head to deliver the blow she hesitated.

 _Soul finds me attractive._ – her earlier worries whether he would be able to return her feelings vanished with that and she began laughing, from deep inside her, with such joy and relief that she teared up, her book dropping from her hand.

Soul who thus far had been scrunching his eyes closed shut, preparing for her vengeance, allowed himself a peek when he heard her laugh. At first he was offended that she was laughing at his expense but studying her facial expression further he realized that she had no such intention.

"You idiotic…" – Maka began, leaning in and kissing her partner on his cheek between words. – "Moronic… sweet… innocent… partner of mine." – at that she fully kissed him on the mouth, breaking down whatever barrier they had erected between themselves by bottling up these things for so long.

Soul was speechless for a second, frozen in the moment then kissed her right back. Unfortunately it had to be cut quite short since both of them were breathless due to their less than healthy state.

"Geez, Maka, your fever is worse than I thought." – he jabbed at her teasingly as he scratched the back of his head to try and ease his awkwardness.

"No, you dummy, I love you." – his meister stated bluntly.

"I love you too." – Soul repeated flatly. It's not like they hadn't said similar things to each other just out of pure habit. It wasn't a secret between them that they cared about one another very deeply.

"No Soul, I _love_ , love you." – Maka emphasized at which the red orbs of her weapon widened. Gathering his courage he kissed her again, a bit more fervently then muttered against her lips.

"I love you too." – it was almost only a whisper from his smiling goofy face but it reached Maka nonetheless.

* * *

Emotional breakthroughs are exhausting as hell. So no wonder that our recently discovered love duo was snoring away merrily for the rest of the morning, with their hands intertwined under the covers.

Around lunch time they were abruptly awoken by the sound of the doorbell going off.

"Who the hell is that?" – Soul groaned as he buried his head into the pillow trying to reclaim his theta brain waves.

"I have no idea." – Maka pulled her blanket over her head.

Wishing for whoever was seeking entrance to just get lost, they tried to fall back asleep when they heard the front door opening. _Oh fuck… Blair…_ – both of them thought almost simultaneously.

They became even more alarmed when they heard the voice of the person the sexy kitty had managed to let in.

"Where is my Maka? Your daddy is here to take care of you! I brought soup!" – the loud and obnoxious man could be heard through the door from just across the hall, probably from the living room or kitchen.

"Oh, no!" – Maka whispered as both of their eyes shot right open, wide with horror.

They were lying together in a bed, in close proximity, holding hands. Given that they were sick they had no energy whatsoever to go beyond that, but even all things considered the position they were in just now did not look good. And Spirit was bound to over-react. Having finally realized their feelings for each other this was bound to be an awkward encounter.

But before any of them could move to rectify the situation, the door to Maka's room flew right open.

"I hope you are not feeling too bad, and that bastard Soul was at least half decent to take care of you!" – Death Scythe chirped cheerfully without really looking and only coming to realize the compromising position the youngsters were in right at the end of the sentence. – "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO MY DAUGHTER YOU FREAKING OCTOPUS HEAD?"

"Would you shut the hell up already?" – Maka exclaimed and threw her book at her father with perfect aim, having it land squarely between his eyes, making him fall back out on the corridor tiles. – "There are sick people here you know? You are making my head hurt!"

The effort left her panting heavily but she tramped out of bed anyway, making her way to the living room to tell Spirit off further, leaving an utterly stunned Soul behind. He could just about make out parts of the heated discussion out there.

"Was he taking advantage of you?"

"No, he wasn't."

"What was he doing in your bed?"

"None of your business."

"I'm your dad, of course it's my business if someone is getting all close up and personal with my teenaged daughter. Especially if it's that damned Soul Eater Evans."

"We are both sick, it's easier to take care of each other in one room, that's what partners do."

"You have no idea how a boy's mind works, do you?"

"Just freaking leave already."

"But I just wanted to take care of you like when you were little."

"Well, I'm not little anymore. So just go, I'm perfectly fine on my own."

"But-but, your daddy loves you, I can't stand to see you suffer."

"The only one making me suffer right now is you."

"Alright, I'll just leave the soup on the counter." – was the last thing the redhead had said dejectedly before the closing of the front door could be heard.

"Blair, please, don't ever let him in again."

"I didn't want to, but once I opened the door he was unstoppable.

"Tsk. Typical."

A frustrated and very tired looking Maka entered back into the room, practically collapsing on top of the bed, half across Soul's legs.

"Wasn't that a bit harsh?" – he asked disinterestedly as he propped himself up on his elbows to look at his partner better.

"But he is so freaking annoying. I can't stand him." – she sighed heavily, her voice muffled by the blanket.

"But he also wasn't wrong." – Soul pointed out. _I can't believe I'm actually taking the side of that obnoxious geezer._

"You weren't doing anything that I didn't want. He will just have to live with it." – the ash-blonde meister stated bluntly. _Consent isn't really the issue here._ – Soul rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I did notice you didn't actually tell him. 'Taking care of each other, that's what partners do'." – to tell the truth he was a bit hurt by the fact that Maka didn't come out to her father with their newfound relationship. Although they haven't exactly gotten the chance to define its nature to themselves either, yet.

"We are still partners. That fact won't change. He will find out soon enough. I just really wanted to have this little bubble with just the two of us for a little while longer." – she peeked at him to see if he was actually upset.

"Don't worry, it's cool." – Soul gave her a wry smile.

As the last bits of tension and adrenalin left her body Maka began to feel really unwell.

"I think I pushed myself too hard." – she whined as her throat registered the effects of yelling and her head began pounding so hard it made her dizzy.

"C'mere, you stubborn girl." – the white-haired weapon reached over to Maka to pull her properly up on the bed and back under the blankets.

Her shivering form relished the warmth provided by both the covers and her partner's body heat, since they ended up under the same blanket again.

"Geez, you are burning up again." – Soul realized as he pushed her bangs back and felt how hot her forehead was.

"My head really hurts." – the ash-blonde meister admitted as she huddled closer to her partner, resting her aching skull on Soul's chest.

"Let's check your fever, okay? Then you can take something for it." – he offered while he stroked soothing circles at the back of her head, making her almost purr in pleasure.

"That feels nice." – she hummed, making Soul chuckle.

"Okay, open up." – the red-eyed partner nudged and Maka complied without a word. – "103.7. This is not funny, Maka." – he stated with a frown as the reading showed up on the thermometer.

"Mmhm." – Maka whimpered at the pain in her temples because Soul had stopped his wonder work with his fingers on her head while he got her the medicine.

"I know, I know. Here." – he offered her the pills and the glass of water that they had on the nightstand.

"Please, don't stop what you were doing." – she requested once she swallowed and lied back down.

"Yes, milady." – Soul chuckled teasingly but Maka was way past caring about his jabbing.

Under his masterful fingers she soon fell into a fitful sleep, hopefully at the end of which she would be feeling much better.

* * *

 **A/N: Burrito scene inspiration came from a little comic by Crashanomics on DeviantArt.**


	7. What are friends for

_Yes, this is exactly why I didn't want Death Scythe to come over yesterday either…_ – Soul frowned to himself as he kept kneading the skin on Maka's head to try and ease her headache.

He was way too warm with his meister wrapped around him under the blanket given her raging fever, but he wouldn't move even if his life depended on it.

After maybe a half an hour – probably as the meds kicked in – Maka seemed less uncomfortable but her fever still wasn't breaking yet.

Meanwhile she was dreaming of Soul, annoying fathers and mischievous cats. None of it made really sense. At one point her partner was dressed in a full suit of armor battling an evil mage – who was the splitting image of her father I might add – riding on a giant purple cat in a witch head; using a sword (Excalibur?) – why Soul wouldn't just transform his arm to a scythe was beyond Maka. Her dream-self was watching the whole thing from a high vantage point and when she finally looked at herself she realized that she had been trapped in a tall tower, wearing nothing but a very skanky lingerie or bikini made out of some kind of brown-gold metal. It looked somewhat familiar. Maybe from a movie Soul had once shown her once but for the life of her she couldn't recall which.

Then the whole thing shifted and she found herself in her childhood home, but she was the same age she was now, all dressed up pretty, her father doting on her, giving her advice on what she should wear for a date. The doorbell rang and the murderous face that Spirit made alarmed Maka. She wanted to get to the door before him, but for some reason the air around her felt like some kind of viscous liquid and she could barely move. Her father opened the door and there stood Soul, in his black suit and red shirt, his white hair gelled to perfection, his wry smile inviting her to join him. Before she could get to him, Spirit transformed his blades and cut Soul up across chest in the exact same way Crona had done.

Just as she was getting ready to scream, Maka felt like a cold glass of water was poured over her and her eyes flew open. She realized as she reached up that she wasn't on Soul anymore, lying on her back and a cold wet washcloth was placed on her forehead.

"Shh. It's okay, sorry I disturbed you." – her partner's soothing, worried voice caught her ears. He was sitting by her side on the bed.

"What time is it?" – the delirious ash-blonde asked groggily.

"Just after 3 PM." – he informed her as she glanced at him. – "Feeling any better?"

"A little." – Maka replied as she noticed that her head wasn't pounding anymore, reaching for his hand, intertwining her fingers with his. – "How about you?"

"Don't worry about me." – Soul smirked with amusement. Even in her current state she was more occupied with her weapon's well-being. _Stubborn, reckless meister of mine…_

Maka glared back at him pointedly, less than pleased with that answer.

"Wanna go back to sleep?" – he inquired, still ignoring her attempts to get him to cave.

"Nah, dreamland is a bit weird of a place right now." – the ash-blonde girl replied humorlessly.

"Bad dreams?" – Soul asked, lowering himself on his elbow.

"Sort of. But more like weird." – she sighed, rubbing her face with her unoccupied hand.

"Dream of me?" – the red-eyed boy smirked at her toothily. In this household weird was almost a synonym with Soul.

"Yes, but not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter, please." – Maka couldn't help but blush as she swatted at his arm playfully.

"Then what?" – Soul asked curiously.

"Ugh. I can't really recall it well. Something about my dad wanting to kill you and locking me up. And I was in a very weird metal bikini with these swirly patterns on it?" – she groaned frustratedly. Her statement sounded more like a question.

"You were dressed up as slave Princess Leia from the Return of the Jedi in your dream?" – her partner snickered at the image. – "And you say _I_ should get my mind out of the gutter."

"I dunno. Have I seen that movie?" – the green-eyed girl looked at him confusedly.

"Of course you have, we watched the whole original Star Wars trilogy just three weeks ago." – Soul glanced at her unimpressed, pouting at her a little for either not paying attention or forgetting about one of the most epic set of movies of all time.

"Oh. That one. Yes, I guess I was in something like that." – she shrugged. Once the mental image was confirmed, her partner's nose started to bleed a little as he dreamily fantasized about it. – "Geez, you are such a pervert." – Maka rolled her eyes and swatted at him again.

"Your pervert." – he grinned at her after blowing his nose and wiping away the blood.

From the surprise of that statement Maka started to cough. – "That's… true." – she whispered once the fit ended.

"Wanna eat something?" – her partner changed the subject before he could earn a Maka-chop if he kept pushing his luck.

"You are hungry?" – she glanced up at him. Well, it _was_ way past lunch time. She realized that probably he only left her side to fetch the towel for her forehead this whole time.

"Aren't you?" – Soul looked at her with concern. _Although it should be expected with the fever she is running._

"Not really. And I don't really have the energy to cook something anyway." – Maka shook her head.

"We have that soup Spirit brought over." – he offered. _Food was food wherever it came from, and since he meant to give that to Maka it surely wasn't poisoned._

"Right." – the ash-blond girl frowned as she considered that option. She had to stay hydrated, so it actually wasn't a bad thing to eat. She was just surprised that Spirit had the brains to actually think of something useful.

"Or we could just order something." – Soul commented distantly as if it didn't matter to him either way. Which was actually true.

"No… the soup will be fine." – she agreed reluctantly. Money wasn't tight but they couldn't afford to waste any if free food was available.

"Be right back." – he patted her on the back of her hand as he untangled himself from her death grip that she didn't realize she was doing to him. She had such a bad relationship with her father that even the thought of him made her tense up.

* * *

Being sick sucked big time. Soul could feel it in his own sluggish body too, that screamed at him to just lie down and not move for like the next week. And he wasn't even that bad off. A mild-fever of 100.5, a little stuffed up nose and sore throat wasn't exactly that much pain in the ass. He just sent his prayers to Shinigami or whoever was willing to listen that it stayed that way because if he had to suffer through what Maka was experiencing he was surely going to die, whereas she wasn't even whining about it that much, just when she was really unwell, being more concerned with his well-being most of the time.

In the kitchen Blair was licking her paws merrily, not having a care in the world.

"Hey." – Soul greeted her when he went to the fridge to get the soup out that he wanted to reheat. She just looked at him with a questioning stare, tilting her head towards the bedroom door.

"Don't even ask." – he commented flatly with a shake of his head, sniffling and coughing a bit into the sleeve of his sweater.

"That's just gross. This place should be quarantined off with the look of things." – Blair scrunched her cat face together in disgust.

"You are free to leave whenever." – the white-haired boy snapped at her offhandedly.

"Nah, it's too fun to watch you two lovebirds go at it." – the kitty kept cleaning her fur then began humming and singing to herself.

 _Maka and Soul sitting in the tree_

 _K-i-s-s-i-n-g!_

 _First comes love._

 _Then comes marriage._

 _Then comes baby in the baby carriage,_

 _Sucking his thumb,_

 _Wetting his pants,_

 _Doing the hula, hula dance!_

Soul just clicked his tongue irritatedly.

* * *

He was starting feel like a damn waiter with all the trays he has been carrying back and forth from their appointed sickroom. Not that he minded taking care of his meister, she had done plenty of her own too. And besides the grateful look on Maka's face when he entered made up for everything.

"Thanks." – she sat up and smiled tiredly at his partner as he set their food down.

"Want help?" – Soul teased earning himself a pointed glare.

"This is not half bad." – he commented after a few spoonfuls. – "Do you think he made this?"

"Could be." – Maka pondered between sips. – "Papa did use to cook when I was younger."

"Do you think you should call him?" – the red-eyed weapon endeavored.

"Why would I?" – his meister huffed like a petulant child.

"Okay, I get it, he is a player, cheated on your mom, multiple times, had a nasty divorce. And he is annoying and obnoxious as fuck. But has he done anything specifically against you?" – he summarized the enigma that was Death Scythe.

"You do realize that I haven't seen my mom in years because she won't come anywhere near Death City since he is here, right? I mean she is also busy with her missions from Lord Death, but he is the reason that she doesn't come back even to report in." – the ash-blonde girl put her sorrow into words regarding her family situation.

"That's totally on her, abandoning her daughter like that. If she wanted to see you so badly she would have found a way to do it." – Soul exclaimed. This had actually been bugging him for a while now. The way Maka idolized her mom to no end, yet Rika was utterly absent from her life and made no attempt to change that.

"Can we just not do this right now?" – Maka sighed tiredly, having no energy whatsoever to delve into the topic right now.

"As you wish." – he turned silent again and just concentrated on eating instead.

"It's not that I don't know how my mom isn't exactly the mother of the year with only sending a postcard or two once in a while. But it's much easier to just hate on Papa instead the both of them." – she whispered almost inaudibly after she finished her soup.

"I'm really not one to talk with the way my family is. So forget I said anything." – Soul backed off, already regretting opening this particular can of worms.

"Are all men untrustworthy pigs like that?" – the ash-blond girl mused pessimistically going back to her fears that were instilled in her by her father.

"I told you this before. Cool men don't cheat on their partners." – her weapon smirked at her, ruffling her hair on the top of her head.

"Yeah, I guess you are right." – Maka laughed out, snuggling up to him. – "You are pretty cool tho."

He only replied with a pleased grin of his own as he enveloped his partner in a big hug.

* * *

The rest of the day went rather uneventfully – thank Lord Death for that! Probably neither of them could have handled another meltdown like the one brought forth by a certain insufferable redhead.

They slept and cuddled, talked and kissed a bit, and even got themselves upgraded to the living room by early evening when finally Maka's fever decreased to 101.1. And watched a movie or two, just to keep this good habit up.

Just to change things up they decided to sleep in Soul's room together that night. Maka of course snatched his blanket again for herself. Even though she couldn't really smell anything at the moment it was somehow comforting to use his.

A good night's sleep could really do wonders to one's health. On Sunday morning both of them woke up with a goofy smile on their faces, feeling much better, both of their fevers between the 100-101 range. They took turns with using the bathroom, washing away the stickiness that their fever left them with.

As they just finished their late breakfast there was a polite knock on the door then someone practically stepped in the doorbell. Maka and Soul exchanged a glance.

"You don't think?" – Soul asked first.

"Open up you lazy bastards, your god is here!" – came the shout that was distinctively their blue-haired friend's, although he was just as loud and obnoxious as the person they feared it might be.

Both of them sighed in relief as Maka made her way there to open the door.

"Black*Star knock it off! Maka could be sleeping…" – Tsubaki tried to rein in her errant meister just at moment. – "Oh, hi!" – she smiled at her friend once she realized that the door had opened. It was only now that the assassin finally let up on the doorbell.

"Hey guys, come on in." – Maka chuckled at the scene.

"Sorry to drop in like this, unannounced, but Black*Star insisted that nothing could get in the way of gaming Sunday." – the tall raven-haired girl shot an admonishing glare at the guilty party, setting a package of some sort on the kitchen counter.

"It's fine, although you might want to keep your distance. I don't want you guys catching it too." – she offered them a seat on the couch were the white-haired boy was already eagerly setting up everything.

"What? Don't tell me you are such a pussy that you went and got sick too!" – Black*Star hollered in disbelief.

"Tone it down a notch, will ya?" – Soul winced at the volume his friend was capable of emitting through his mouth.

"What have you been doing? Smooching all day that you managed to catch her cold?" – the way they averted their gazes and blushed told more than a hundred words. – "YOU ACTUALLY DID KISS DIDN'T YOU?"

"Shut up already!" – the pair insisted since their heads were starting to hurt.

"I deeply apologize for him." – the shadow weapon bowed in her partner's stead. – "Black*Star! Learn to be silent already!" – she turned to him.

"But did you?" – the blue-haired meister pushed on unrelenting, ignoring his partner's words.

"That was after I came down with it, but… yeah…" – Soul finally admitted, scratching the back of his head.

At the scrutinizing glance of Tsubaki, Maka motioned for her to join her in the kitchen to talk while she made some tea, leaving the boys to their own devices, Black*Star was already giving a high-five to his pal.

"Do tell." – the shadow weapon nudged her. And Maka spilled the beans on what had happened since their phone call the day before, giggling furiously at some of the more embarrassing moments.

"What are you girls up to?" – Soul called over to them suspiciously.

"Nothing!" – they replied in perfect unison, ending up giggling again but stopped when it sent Maka coughing.

"So are you officially going out now that you have confessed to each other?" – Tsubaki whispered to her.

"I… don't know… we haven't really talked about that yet." – the ash-blonde girl admitted dejectedly.

"Don't worry, you will get around to it." – she comforted her friend, then they decided to join the boys again before they set the house on fire or something.

Soul eyed Maka questioningly but she just shook her head at him to indicate that they will talk about it later.

"Oh, I almost forgot! I found that box outside your door." – Tsubaki exclaimed pointing to said object on the counter. Maka raised her eye-brow questioningly, since neither of them had ordered anything recently.

She got up to inspect it, Soul abandoning his game and close on her tail. There was a card attached to it.

"Dear Maka, Hope you get well soon. Death the Kid, Liz and Patti." – Maka read the card. _Typical Kid_ , she rolled her eyes. Opening the package she found a small fruit basket in it with oranges and apples, all carefully selected to be symmetrical it seemed.

"Should I be jealous?" – Soul teased as he saw the contents of it too. His meister shoved him playfully.

"That wouldn't be cool, would it?" – she teased right back.

"Touché." – he agreed.

They shared and snacked on the fruit till around lunch time, the girls chatting and watching the boys play, who were going at it with great vehemence.

"Okay, I'm beat!" – Soul exclaimed suddenly, leaning back against the couch exhausted from trying to overpower Black*Star's reflexes in the game.

"Come on, Soul, don't be such a wuss!" – the blue-haired meister taunted him on, wanting to continue gaming.

"I'm sick, man, have mercy on me." – the scythe boy groaned as he rubbed his tired eyes.

"That's no excuse, you are just weak and pathetic!"

"You would feel weak and pathetic with a fever too!"

"I don't get sick, I'm too big of a star for that!"

The bantering back and forth was interrupted when Soul felt a sneeze coming on and just to spite his obnoxious friend he let it loose in his direction without covering.

"Let's see about that…" – he muttered under his breath.

Within a few minutes Tsubaki dragged her errant partner out of the apartment to leave while she kept continuously apologizing for his behavior.

* * *

Monday morning Maka tried to sneak off to school while she wasn't entirely well yet, Soul having to drag her back in and tell her off that she needed to rest until she got all better.

Just as they wrestled their way back into the apartment the phone went off.

It was Tsubaki informing them that they weren't going to school either because Black*Star came down with a fever – very mild at that – but he kept insisting that he was dying…

* * *

 **A/N: I have no idea why but Rika is the name that keeps coming to my mind regarding the name of Maka's mom. She was supposed to have some sort Japanese heritage from her mom right? I know it's not Kami, like many people think. That's a mistranslation of a Japanese etiquette - motokamisan which means ex-wife.**

 **Thank you animedancer14 for the unintentional idea with the playground song XD**

 **Anyway, this is the end of this little (or maybe not even that little) fic of mine. I just love these cuties. It's such a shame that in the anime nothing happens between them.**


End file.
